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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/italyofitaliansOOzimm 



The 

Italy of the Italians 



By 

Helen Zimmern 

Author of 

*' Schopenhauer, his Life and Philosophy,' 

" Lessing, his Life and Works," 

" The Epic of Kings," etc., etc. 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

153-157 Fifth Avenue 

1906 






Italy, my Italy I 
Queen Mary's saying serves for me 

{When fortune's malice 

Lost her Calais), 
Open my heart and you will see 
Graved inside of it, " Italy.'* 
Such lovers old are I and she. 
So it always was, so shall ever be I 









^/ 



/:i3 



FOREWORD 

Since that memorable year, 1870, Italy has, happily, ceased 
to be "a geographical expression," as Prince Metternich 
contemptuously phrased it. Nevertheless, though thousands 
of travellers over-run her fair borders in the course of each 
year, in ever increasing numbers, to the greater proportion 
she still remains little else than a geographical expression, 
and her citizens are regarded either as the staffage to a lovely 
landscape or as the custodians of her artistic treasures. These 
travellers, too, seldom know the language of the land and 
hence are apt to get their information from guides, hotel 
porters, cabmen, and others the like. As a result they may 
see towns and museums but they get little or no idea of Italy's 
real life and civilization. Few stop even to wonder what are 
the impulses, the aims, the hopes, the ambitions that cause 
the heart of this land to pulsate with energy, that virtue on 
which her greatest poet, Dante, laid such stress. Few enquire 
what is her present position in the world of European thought. 
What she gave us in the past, how, together with Greece, we 
owe her all our culture, is familiar enough. Less familiar, 
on the other hand, is her contribution to the modern move- 
ment, her bequest to the fabrics of contemporary science, 
art, literature, and philosophy. 

It is the aim of this book to give a popular reply to such 
questions as many an intelligent traveller would fain put, but 
which he is hindered from pronouncing by his scant knowledge 
of the language. It does not pretend to be either learned or 
exhaustive. It only desires to excite an intelligent curiosity 
in the hope of inducing its readers to prosecute studies on 
their own behalf in such sections of the vast theme as 
particularly appeal to their individual sympathies. 

And here I must take occasion to acknowledge my grateful 



iv Italy of the Italians 

thanks to those who have generously supphed me with 
information, and especially I would mention Professor 
Giuseppe Signorini, the late Signor Alfredo Bona, Marchese 
Ridolfo Peruzzi, Conte Giorgio Mannini, Commendatore Guido 
Biagi, and Mr. George Gregory Smith. I also acknowledge 
the permission accorded by the editors of the Cornhill Magazine 
and the Fortnightly Review to reprint portions of my own 
articles. My affectionate thanks are also due to my cousin, 
Mr. Alfred E. Zimmern, of New CoUege, Oxford, for kind 
advice, encouragement, and assistance in proof reading. 



HELEN ZIMMERN. 



Palazzo Buondelmonti, Florence, 
August 1, 1906. 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. 








PAGE 


I. 


THE KING .... 






1 


II. 


THE PRESS . ... 






. 27 


III. 


LITERATURE .... 






. 38 


IV. 


THE PAINTERS 






. 77 


V. 


SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE 






. 115 


VI. 


PLAYHOUSES, PLAYERS AND PLAYS 






. 141 


VII. 


SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS 






163 


VIII. 


PHILOSOPHY .... 






175 


IX. 


AGRARIAN ITALY 






197 


X. 


INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 






220 


XI. 


UNDERGROUND ITALY 






236 


XII. 


MUSIC 






243 


XIII. 


ITALY AT PLAY . . . . 




. 


258 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PASS 



Frontispiece. — their majesties the king and queen 

OF ITALY AND THEIR CHILDREN. 



HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF ITALY 


facing 12 '' 


HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN WITH THE PRINCESSES 


facing 18 


EXTERIOR OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES . 




. 20^ 


INTERIOR OF THE ITALIAN PARLIAMENT 




. 22" 


PIAZZA COLONNA 




34 


GIOSUE CARDUCCI 




. 38 


MATILDE SERAO 




64 


A GROUP OF MODELS .... 




76 


A STREET SCENE IN SOUTHERN ITALY 




90 


THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE 




108 


SCULPTORS AT WORK .... 




132 


THE SCALA THEATRE, MILAN 




142 


ERMETE ZACCONI 




152/ 


ELENORA DUSE 




154^ 


ENRICO FERRI 




190/ 


AN OLD SHEPHERD OF THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA . 




206 


A WOMAN-BUILDER AND BRICKLAYER 




210 


A ROMAN WINE CART .... 




212 


TRANSPORTING HEMP .... 




218 


WOMEN AT WORK 




228 


A PEDLAR 




232' 


THE CAPITOL AND FORUM 




236/ 



viii Italy of the Italians 

PAGE 

MILAN CATHEDRAL, PIAZZA AND GALLERY . . . 242 

LORENZO PEROSI 244 

PIETRO MASCAGNI . . . . . . . 248 

NEAPOLITAN STREET TYPES AT THE FBSTA OF PIBDIGROTTA 254 

DRAWING OF THE LOTTO . . . . . . 258 

PREPARATIONS FOR A TOMBOLA . . . . . 264 

PALIO OF SIENA 268 

A GAME OF PALLONB 274 / 



The Italy of the Italians 



CHAPTER I 

THE KING 

It is told on excellent authority that Queen Victoria, whose 
long experience of men and things had made her a keen 

observer, picked out the Prince of Naples 
The King, from among all the heirs to European 

monarchies as the most promising and able. 
Time has justified the old Queen's prophecy. There sits no 
wiser, keener, more cultured or more modern sovereign on 
any throne ; none who more thoroughly identifies himself 
with his country or better understands its needs. And all 
the King does is done so quietly and unobtrusively, without 
fireworks of phrase or parade of action, that even in Italy 
it has taken a little while to find out and gauge the new 
sovereign's value. Still, when he ascended the throne with 
the new century but a few months begun, it was instinctively 
hoped, if not felt, that a new and better era was dawning for 
Itsdy, and a great wave of hope greeted his advent. 

In order to understand the fuU reason for this it is needful 
to cast a bird's-eye glance over Italian politics. At the time 

of King Humbert's murder (July 29th, 1900) 
P*^ti*" there were unmistakable signs in the air of 

the near approach of a catastrophe in Italian 
domestic affairs. A malign influence was leading the various 
rapidly succeeding Ministries, each and all devoid of a definite 
programme, along a road of injudicious acts at the end of which 



2 ^ Italy of the Italians 

loomed the downfall of the Monarchy. The murderer 
Bresci by his dastardly act saved the monarchical principle 
in Italy and secured the dynasty to the House of Savoy. 
King Humbert was no self asserting monarch, it may even 
be said that he was too constitutional for a young country like 
Italy where political principles have not yet become fixed. 
For a strong personality can make itself felt even under the 
constitutional curb, as witness Humbert's own father, Victor 
Emmanuel II and our King Edward VII. 

Before the corpse of the King, a good-hearted man if not 
a wise sovereign, before the blood thus wantonly shed, the 
various political parties stood dismayed and felt it was 
necessary to draw together and act in patriotic concert ere 
it became too late. For, as they suddenly perceived, now 
that their eyes were opened, if the wranglings of political 
parties and the preachings of extremists were to result in the 
abolition of the monarchy, the result would have been civil 
war, a fresh dismemberment of Italy, and renewed foreign 
intervention. 

Beyond question the errors of the Italian Government 

since the too early death of Cavour, the only Italian statesman 

endowed with real practical aptitude, have 

Defects of the \yQQj^ many and great. The fact is that 
(jov6rnnicnt. 

Italy was made too quickly, the revolution 

was too suddenly successful : there had not been enough time 

to allow of the training of free-born citizens. As the patriot 

Massimo d'Azeglio said, " Italy is made, we must now make 

the Italians." It would, of course, be absurd to expect a 

young nation like Italy to have stable arrangements, or 

precise aims such as pertain to nations that can count centuries 

of life. Rather, if we look at what Italy was little more than 

fifty years ago, we have reason to be astonished at the striking 

advance she has made in so short a time and may well place 

high hopes upon a people who have given proof of such 

exuberant and recuperative vitality. 

The troubles under which Italy groans are of two-fold 



The King 3 

nature, or rather the one is the result of the other. In a land 

for centuries broken up into petty states no sense of cohesion 

could exist. Provincialism is rampant and 

Want of corrodes all the various sections of public 
Cohesion. ^ 

life. But instead of taking into account 

these sectional differences and utilizing them as helpful 

factors, instead of keeping alive the autonomous character 

of these various provinces, the Italian statesmen who had 

made Italy looked around them for an example to copy 

for the framing of their administrative and executive power, 

and most unluckily hit upon France as their model. Now, 

France has for long been autonomous, her people love system 

and uniformity and are essentially logical. The keynote to 

the Italian character, on the other hand, is individualism, 

and all the past glories of the land, whether as cities, or petty 

states, sprang from that fact. Then, suddenly, without 

previous preparation or training, these were all squeezed into 

one mould. -* 

The administrative system, for instance, included the 
institution in each government department of a Prefect, an 

The Prefect anomalous and, to British ideas, most 
and the mischievous functionary who resides in the 

Municipality, chief city of a province as the representative 
of the government, holding office during their pleasure and 
exercising a pressure and a surveillance on the local func- 
tionaries with whom he has nothing in common. Thus 
the cities at once come under a divided rule, that of the 
Municipality and that of the Prefect, often with unfortunate 
results. In the same way authority over the police is divided 
and there are two sorts, municipal and governmental, and 
these by no means work into each other's hands — often quite 
the contrary. 

But, while copying the French administrative arrangement, 
Italy, unfortunately, did not copy its tributary system of 
taxation. Instead, they took a little from this country, a little 
from that, with hopeless results ; this is noteworthy in their 



4 Italy of the Italians 

adoption of the English Income Tax, which is in no respects 
a toll suited to the Italian temperament. Long years of 
mis-rule and oppression have made the Italians secretive and 
mistrustful of all governments, the truth where it can be is 
carefully hidden, and the public treasury suffers. No Italian 
thinks it wrong to cheat the Government, quite the contrary. 

" Fatta la legge, pensata la malizia," says 
Taxation ^ proverb, which means to all intents and 

purposes that when a law is made the means 
to circumvent it must also be provided. Nor is this to be 
wondered at when we learn that the Income Tax, for example, 
is most arbitrarily assessed, not on a man's income but 
according to its nature and source, varying from 10 to 20 
per cent., and that even the pettiest salaries must contribute 
their quota. Land pays an exorbitantly high tax, from 30 
to even 50 per cent., and consequently rarely yields more than 
3 per cent. And almost worse than the taxes themselves 
is the way they are collected and assigned. The citizen is 
hampered and vexed at every point, all initiative is damped, 
industries are strangled while but half- fledged, and time, 
that precious commercial commodity, is wasted with a 
criminal disregard of the interests of others. To speak only 
of the most familiar, every-day matters, when I get the paper 
telling me that my house- taxes are due and what they amount 
to, I am not able, as in England, to pay the tax gatherer at the 
door and have done with it. I must go in person or send a 
servant between given hours to a given place. Even if my 
messenger arrives there two hours before the time assigned, 
a long queue is standing before the closed guichet. When 
that is opened each man in turn comes up, but as interminable 
sheets of writing must be filled and also much friendly con- 
versation exchanged, it is highly probable that my messenger 
will return after some weary hours spent standing in a crowd 
to find that the office hours were over, and the guichet closed 
ere ever he could hand in his dole. No cheques are accepted 
in payment, the money may not be sent by postal order, but 



The King 5 

must be paid cash down, and in person. As a facility it is 
permitted to pay the local taxes in five instalments, and 
Italians will five times a year submit uncomplainingly to this 
corvee. Needless to say, foreigners prefer to pay in the lump, 
to the constant amazement of the people, who always remark : 
" But if you should die before the year is out you will have 
made a present to the Government " ; never comprehending 
that we foreigners would rather run that risk and give the 
Government a few needless pence than have our time wasted 
in this wise. 

The fiscal policy of Italy also weighs heavily upon its 
hygiene. The heavy tax on salt, which is a Government 
monopoly, puts its use almost out of reach 
The Salt Tax. of the poorer class, and deprives the agricul- 
turist of the power to give this most needful 
aliment to his beasts. And to such extremes is this salt 
monopoly carried that it is not possible when staying at the 
seaside to take home a bucket of sea-water in order to take 
a bath, except with a written permission from the authorities, 
to obtain which is, of course, a matter of time and expense. 
The Government is so afraid lest the people might, by evapora- 
tion, procure for themselves a little rough salt that even the 
loneliest bits of the coast are patrolled by finance ofl&cers. 
Here again, as in the case of the town octroi, one asks, Can 
it possibly pay ? 

The tax on sugar, too, is an unfortunate one, especially 

nowadays that the nutritive value of sugar for the young is 

recognised. So dear is this commodity that 

^Tobacco** it is a current Anglo-Italian joke to ask 

strangers whether they take their tea with or 

without " gold." But for this fiscal burden Italy might drive 

a thriving trade in jams and marmalades. Instead, the 

Italian fruit crops are exported to Switzerland, a land where 

sugar is cheap and which, therefore, reaps the profit. Yet 

another unwise restriction concerns tobacco. The preparation 

and sale of this is also a Government monopoly, consequently 



6 Italy of the Italians 

though whole districts of the South are admirably suited for 
the cultivation of this plant it is strictly forbidden to grow it, 
and even in private gardens not more than three plants are 
allowed. And where it is grown, under Government super- 
vision, every kaf is counted. Shops, usually small but very 
numerous, bearing the superscription " Sale, Tabacchi e 
Francobolli," (salt, tobacco, and stamps), are familiar 
features of Italian streets. 

In these ways, by a short-sighted and narrow-minded fiscal 

policy, the Italian exchequer loses vast sums that it might 

gain. It is a constant cause of complaint 

Fiscaj'^PoHcv ^^^* large sums are absorbed by the Army, 

and, indeed, this Army is one of the Socialist 

stalking horses. Yet in sober fact the absurd illogical fiscal 

system is far more costly and damaging to the finances of the 

land. 

And this unwisdom goes through every branch of the 
Administration. This is the reason, for instance, that there 
are so few companies in Italy. Apart from the fact that 
the profound mutual mistrust which is so deep-rooted in the 
Italian character, makes them work badly together, it is not 
possible for companies to hide their profits ; these must, of 
necessity, be made public, and it is too easy for the tax- 
gatherer to squeeze the life out of the enterprise before it has 
taken a fair hold. Such few companies as exist are apt to 
have their chief seat outside the confines, say at Lugano, 
which would be Italian except for a geographical accident. 
It is in ways such as these that the exchequer is circumvented. 

Because of these same vexatious fiscal laws Italians often 
find it cheaper and simpler to let their capital lie idle than to 
employ it only to come in contact with these greedy vultures. 
That commerce and industry have of late years advanced by 
leaps and bounds in the face of these restrictions, shows how 
rich the land might be if a more modern, just and reasonable 
system of taxation were introduced. 

Yet another irksome restriction is the requirement that 



The King ' 7 

every trifling public document must be written on stamped 
paper of varying value and that only a small portion of the 

paper may be written on ; each fresh sheet, 
Irksome ^^ course, means new outlay, and a blot or 

an erasure invalidates the sheet. This same 
objection to erasures applies even to the common-place 
telegraph form. If you change your wording you must take 
a fresh form or initial the change. At every unexpected 
moment the public comes in contact with bureaucratic 
pedantry. Here, again, France and Germany have served 
as models. Foreigners are constantly coming into contact 
with these little vexations. If, for example, your purse is 
stolen or a cab knocks you down, you must state your name, 
your age, your address, your father's name, whether he be 
living or dead, and your mother's maiden cognomen, before 
the police can attend to your grievance. Yet, despite these 
passing absurdities, Italy is without exception the freest land 
on the Continent, and the one in which the ordinary foreigner 
comes least into contact with the police regulations, which 
render a sojourn in Germany, for example, so mixed a 
blessing. 

Industry is hampered by a tariff at the frontier. But 
these are not the only hindrances to free trade. The mediaeval 

Octroi is still a living institution in Italy, 
The Octroi confining the town barriers and closed gates. 

At each of these stand a small army of 
officials, local and governmental, who poke their fingers into 
every basket and bundle, harry the peasants and delay the 
traveller whether he wdk or drive, or ride in tram or 'bus. 
If you live in a villa outside the gate and wish to take your 
table to be mended by the carpenter, you must pay duty on 
bringing in your own used property, or you must sign so 
many papers and go through so many formalities in order 
to get exemption that again you prefer to give the Government 
the few pence. For this Octroi tax really entails only pence. 
It weighs very gravely, nevertheless, upon the peasant who 



8 Italy of the Italians 

brings in his market produce for sale and has perhaps to take 
it back unsold, and, of course, it raises the price of all comes- 
tibles. Everyone who can cheats the Octroi or helps others 
to cheat. No market woman in a tram with a basket full of, 
say, eggs or grapes will find any fine lady who refuses to let 
it stand under her skirts while the gate is passed and the 
Octroi men walk through the vehicle. It must surely cost 
the State more to keep up this staff of Custom ofl&cers at 
each town gate than they take in cash from this irksome 
impost. And in its incidence one comes in contact again 
with the curious pedantry that lurks in the Italian character. 
In vain, for instance, did a party of tourists who had bought 
a little bottle of Chartreuse outside the gates of Florence 
and incautiously held it in their laps offer to pay 50 c, even 
a franc rather than the 4 c. that proved to be the custom 
dues, provided they were not detained as they feared to lose 
their train. It was useless : the bottle had to be weighed, 
appraised, the endless papers had to be written out and signed 
and countersigned. 

AU this writing involves an enormous waste of time and 

energy in all departments of public life. Even at the railway 

the name of stations has constantly to be 

Unpractical inserted in ink on the tickets, and as the box 
Administration, offices are not open all the time, like in prac- 
tical Switzerland, but only a short time before 
the train is scheduled to start, the delay and confusion en- 
gendered is great. And, again, as blotting-paper is as yet 
a commodity unknown in Italian official life and all papers 
are sanded over, a further dawdle occurs in strewing this 
unwonted material over the written words and re-collecting 
it in the saucers. 

This same curious want of practical ability in administrative 
matters makes itself felt in many spheres. It is the more 
curious that this should also exist in the domain of banking 
when we remember that it was Italians who, in the Middle 
Ages, were Europe's bankers, and that Italian banking terms 



The King 9 

are still current the world over. Ink, paper and pens must 
really be a considerable item in Italian public expenditure. 

Again, what precious time is wasted in the law courts 
from the fact that there is no such thing as an official steno- 
grapher. If you are called as a witness into an Italian court 
your exact words are not taken down, but the presiding magis- 
trate dictates a synopsis of your statements to a scribe sitting 
beside him, who transcribes it with great deliberation. The 
consequence is that not your own words but the official's 
personal impression of your testimony is recorded, and what 
loophole this leaves for confusion and misapprehension need 
not be dwelt on. 

All these flaws would, of course, have to be altered by law, 
and here, again, the obstructive element is the intense central- 
ization. For, as the judicial and administrative life is bound 
up with the executive, and governments change with bewilder- 
ing rapidity, there is continual vacillation and a want of firm 
ground in all departments, which is a grievous hindrance to 
the progress of the country, a source of grave weakness to 
public life. 

All Italian public life has its outcome in Parliament. The 

deputies play a leading part in all work and initiative, and 

of every business arrangement, both legal and 

^^^^'Life"*^*^^ illegal. Yet despite this fact, Italian Par- 
liamentary life is somewhat of a chaos. 
Political parties can hardly be said to exist, for the old well- 
marked parties who made United Italy are submerged and 
the modern divisions which take their place are not genuine 
parties but factions actuated by a selfish struggle for office, 
too often dominated by time-servers and place-hunters, 
among whom corruption is rife and rampant. Were we to 
judge of Italy from what we see from behind the scenes in 
the Chamber of Deputies our esteem for the land would be 
lowered. But, happily, the land is better than its Parliament, 
and its weaknesses are only too fully realized. The saying that 
every country has the government it deserves is only 

?— (3395) 



10 Italy of the Italians 

applicable here in so far that the Italian is lazy about going to 
the polling booths and thus allows the wire pullers to obtain 
the upper hand and get their candidates returned. 

Nor are Italians wholly to be blamed for this inertia. 
Elections are too apt to be manipulated by the Prefects put 
in on purpose and by others who wish to secure the return 
of the Government nominee, and it may lead to petty annoy- 
ances to oppose the dominant current. It is true that in 
private or in public, at caf6s or in trains, Italians will talk 
endlessly upon public affairs and will curse and criticise their 
Government to any extent. But when it comes to going to 
the polling booths abstainers are but too numerous, and in all 
other ways, too, none lift a finger to remedy the defects they 
deplore. I except, of course, the Socialists, who comprehend the 
value of association, and it is herein that their strength resides. 
At first the Right and Left were well-marked parties 
somewhat corresponding to our Liberals and Conservatives, 

though these Conservatives would have been 
Political classed as Liberals in England, since the one 

really Conservative element, the Catholic, 
was excluded from voting by the Papal veto ; this has been 
so ever since the Papacy refused to recognise the changed 
conditions and withdrew, like Achilles, with its henchmen 
from the fray. It was first Depretis, then Crispi who lowered 
the standard of Parliamentary morality, and when Crispi's 
" swelled head " finally brought disaster on the land this 
morality was so relaxed and the faith of the country in 
Parliamentary government so weakened that it was possible 
for him to be succeeded by the unscrupulous Giolitti, who 
was deeply involved in the bank scandals and an advocate 
of political corruption. He again was succeeded by others 
of more or less repute. For in Italy Ministries spring up like 
mushrooms and rise and fall, recompose and reconstruct 
themselves with such frequency that the whole system has 
got discredited, and it is often difficult to keep up with its 
vagaries. King Humbert, as I said before, was in a measure 



The King 11 

to blame for this. His father had bequeathed him a far 
stronger kingdom than he passed on to his son. ^e was far 
too easy-going, too good-natured, and, what was worse, too 
much out of touch with his people, and surrounded by a 
system so hampered by red tape that he never had a chance 
of hearing the truth. Though a lion in courage physically, he 
was mentally timid, and was not fitted to clear out the Augean 
stable which his Parliament had created. Hence his death, 
deplorable as it was, permitted a thorough change of front. 

The young King, like a clever surgeon, at once cut deep into 
the gangrene of decay. He who had hitherto been an un- 
known quantity, as to whose nature men who were not behind 
the scenes speculated vastly, showed a determination, a 
knowledge, an energy, and a rectitude that instantly 
commanded respect and attention. 

Victor Emmanuel Gennaro, now King of Italy with the 
title of Victor Emmanuel HI, was born at Naples on November 
11th, 1869. His infancy was spent at Court, 
^King Victor ^j^gj-g j^g ^^s brought up and educated under 
the immediate and intelligent supervision of 
his mother, Queen Margherita, one of the most cultured of 
Italy's noble ladies. He was trained from the first to love 
simplicity and virtue, and since he inherited much more of 
his grandfather's energetic and self-willed character than of 
the weak and too kindly temperament of his father, he 
showed, even from a child, that when it should be his turn 
to reign he would not prove to be the useless, dumb, and 
obsequious symbol of a particular form of political govern- 
ment, but would show himself a man before whose will the 
will of others would need to bend, and if need be, break. 
Of his childhood various anecdotes are told, which, even when 
declared to be apocr5^hcJ, remain as proof that the people 
cared little for, and were distrustful of, the " little prince." 
In very deed, in some of these boyish escapades the man 
peeped through, and showed not only the outline, but almost 
the whole being of the man who, when he had scarcely 



12 Italy of the Italians 

ascended the throne, frankly forbade his Ministers to spend 
their evenings at the caf6 or club, giving them to understand 
that since the work that is expected of them is great, they 
should not be able to find time to waste in such frivolous 
diversions. King Humbert, to whom the too haughty 
character of his son caused secret disquiet, often, perhaps with 
more frequency than justice, put the Prince of Naples under 
arrest. During these days of confinement the young man 
meditated deeply, pondered plans of campaign, and threw 
himself with ardour into the study of history, of which he 
has always been a profound and eager student. He also 
devoted even more attention to the acquisition of medals 
and coins, collected by him since his earliest boyhood, 
which has made of him one of the most expert numismatists 
in Europe. Meanwhile, between physical exercises and hard 
study, his mind and body acquired shape and strength ; 
consequently, though neither tall and muscular like his father 
and grandfather, Victor Emmanuel HI is robust like all his 
race. He can sit for hours in the saddle without feeling the 
least fatigue or discomfort ; he can remain for long periods 
without taking food. It is true that his present good health 
and vigour were acquired by painful measures, and it is not 
unknown in Italy that the young prince might have become 
consumptive had not the King, his father, changed the severe 
curriculum of studies just in time, and given his son permission 
to travel, and leave his tutors and masters for months together. 
The voyages the young prince took during those years of 
ill-health, besides affording him a vast amount of information, 
by which he amply profited, completely restored his health, 
though he to this day has the outward appearance of frailty, 
and is undersized in stature. 

It has been said that Victor Emmanuel III much resembles 
the German Emperor. A wide application must, in this case, 
be given to the word " resembles." Victor Emmanuel 
has revealed himself as a man of clear conceptions and 
iron will, but the Itahan constitution does not afford 




Photo by Flli. D, Alessandri, Rome 

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF ITALY 



The King 13^ 

him the power of making and unmaking possessed 
by his august cousin, nor is it at all likely that he would 

wish to pose as a vice-God on earth. 

A Comparison j^ one phase of his character, but in 

GermlJl Emperor, only one, Victor Emmanuel truly seems to 

resemble WilUam of Hohenzollern, and 
that is in his supreme strength of will. On ascending 
the throne, the first words he uttered were words that 
announced his firmness, words that caused hope to spring 
once more in the hearts of the Italian people. 

In fact, the one thing which has struck all Italians is that 
Victor Emmanuel III has from the first shown himself 

intelligent. For some reason unexplained the 

Life as people had grown to believe him a fool. The 

Crown Prince. ^ tr o ,,.,i tj^j^ixt-t j 

reason may be sought m the fact that he lived 

in much retirement and never caused the public to talk of him 

or of his deeds. In these days, when all the small fry of 

literature and art, and, still more, of politics, are ever trying 

to draw the eyes of the public upon themselves, and keep 

beating the big drum of self-advertisement, to let it be known 

that they also exi§t in the world, this young man, who might 

easily have won applause, playing as he did oije of the chief 

rdles in the comedy of life, persisted in remaining behind the 

scenes, occupied in his private studies, and in the latter years 

absorbed in the love of his young and beautiful wife. 

In Italy, where all know that Queen Margherita exerted 

as much influence on the Government as King Humbert 

himself — an influence, however, not applied with a proper 

knowledge of social conditions — it seemed strange that the 

Crown Prince should take so little interest in public affairs 

as to allow the King's weakness and the incapacity and 

stupidity of his Ministers to endanger and compromise his 

crown. No explanation of this phenomenon was forthcoming, 

except by concluding that the Prince was an imbecile. It 

is true that when the ambitious improvidence of Francesco 

Crispi led the Italian soldiery under the orders of General 



14 Italy of the Italians 

Baratieri to the dire defeat of " Abba Carima," Prince Victor 
Emmanuel, in the presence of the King, his father, burst into 
vehement abuse of the hapless Minister, reproaching him 
with the defeat, and at the same time cast in his face the 
other senseless and ugly deeds performed by his political allies. 
But as the King, after the outburst, once more consigned his 
son to arrest, the Prince speedily re-entered the shadow from 
which he had but an instant emerged at a moment of over- 
whelming disgust, and once more he seemed to exist for 
nothing else than his studies, his travels, his numismatic col- 
lection. He thus furnished a noble example of a respectful 
son, loving his father more than the throne which might one 
day be his. He also at the same time took the stand of a 
man who intended to keep his hands free to act in his own way 
on the day when he should be called by the course of events to 
rule over Italy. And, in fact, when the tragedy of Monza 

forced him to take up his father's burden, his 
Character ^j.g|. ^qj-(Js ^gj-e those of a man not bound by 
as King. ,1111 

the past, of a man who would and could 

renew the sorely shaken structure of Italian political life. 

Victor Emmanuel Ill's first words inspired the con- 
fidence that he could and would take as monarch the 
place he must occupy if Italian monarchy was to be saved 
from the breakers of civil war. A thorough and intelligent 
study of social science has made of this young man a king 
ripe to govern new generations in this new age. He 
is not burdened with antiquated notions which see ruin in 
every reform, or an enemy of public institutions in every 
friend of new social and political theories. As a soldier and 
head of the Army he feels the imperious necessity of maintain- 
ing it as a sound, strong and faithful defender of the public 
institutions and of the fatherland. But as a citizen and 
head of his subjects he also understands their urgent needs, 
and feels that scope must be given to new energy, and to 
fresh social arrangements, by means of speedy reforms, 
which shall be logical, and prudent, and yet profound, and 



The King 15 

set a limit to the overwhelming fury of the extreme parties, 
which would drag the country into desperate struggles, 
fruitless of result, and fatal to all prosperity. The King 
never passes a day without reading the papers of the Extreme 
parties' factions, often making notes and comments with 
his own hand. In the same way he occupies himself with 
everything that emanates from the groups of the Parliament- 
ary Opposition. An indefatigable worker, he has insisted, 
to the no small amazement and consternation of his subordi- 
nates, from the first day of his power, that all decrees that 
require his signature shall be presented to him at least three 
days beforehand, in order that he may supervise, study and 
control everything before giving to any act, even the most 
insignificant, the sanction of his approval and sign manual. 

Accustomed from childhood to search out for himself the 
truth of things, as soon as he ascended the throne he desired 
to see how the directors of charitable institutions fulfilled 
their trusts, and during his retired stay in Naples during the 
first weeks of mourning, some deeds are quoted which well 
reveal his character, showing that he knows both how to 
punish and reward those who harm or those who benefit his 
country. Here are the facts. 

One morning he arrived very early and very unexpectedly 

at one of the principal hospitals of Naples. He entered, 

passed through the passages, visited the 

^he P^ople**^ dispensing room, the consulting office, the 
kitchen, and in fact inspected the whole 
establishment. Finding it was not attended to as it should 
be, he used harsh words to the director. " The poor are not 
to be treated thus." The director endeavoured to make 
excuses and defend himself. Victor Emmanuel looked at 
him, said nothing, and went out. " His silence," said a 
spectator, " was harsher than his words." Another day he 
descended unexpectedly among the palace guards. He 
inspected their quarters, visited the soldiers, tasted their food, 
and praised their good order. He evinced his satisfaction 



16 Italy of the Italians 

and let it be known to the person responsible that he might 
be proud of such well-merited praise. On another occasion 
a courageous and intelligent railway pointsman saved from 
certain disaster a train just entering a station. The railway 
company gave the man a niggardly reward. The King, 
unable to make the company understand in any other way 
the meanness of their behaviour, himself sent to the pointsman 
a sum much larger than that presented by the company. 
The railway company then tried to remedy the matter, but 
it was too late, and they were put to shame. Some time 
ago the King appeared in his favourite unexpected way in a 
dockyard. He questioned the workmen, visited a ship in 
the course of construction, took accurate note of everything 
noteworthy that presented itself, and praised and blamed 
where praise and blame seemed merited. This, in short, is 
one of the ways in which Victor Emmanuel interprets his 
kingly mission. 

And since truly in Italy there is much to blame, and since 

no words are so efficacious as the words of the King, the 

people who know this perceive at last that 

His Lofty their sovereign is not what they had taken 

of Duty. him for during the long years of retirement 

and oblivion. Hence Italy as a nation has 

fixed her last and greatest hope upon him, and he in turn 

has already inspired his people with respect and esteem. 

An upright man, with a lofty conception of the duties imposed 

by a throne, he wishes all other men to do their duty, from 

the highest to the lowest, in all spheres of government, in all 

classes, in all groups and associations of the nation. 

" In Italy," he said in one of his first speeches, " no man 
does his duty. From the highest to the lowest the laissez 
faire and laxity are complete. Now it is to the accomplish- 
ment of their several duties that all without distinction must 
be called. I begin with myself, and am trying to do my 
duty conscientiously and with love. This must serve as an 
example and a spur to others. My Ministers must help me 



The King 17 

in everything. They must not promise except that which 
they can certainly maintain ; they must not create illusions. 
Whoever fulfils his duty, braving every danger, even death, 
I shall consider the best citizen." (Severe words these, but, 
unfortunately, not unmerited.) Victor Emmanuel has long 
been accustomed to do his duty. Just as he knew and 
understood his obligations as Crown Prince, as subject, as 
son, and scrupulously performed them, so now as King he 
knows how much weightier these duties are, but has deter- 
mined to accomplish them all. He wishes to know everything 
that occurs in his realm ; he wishes to discuss everything 
with his Ministers, and this because he intends to give to all 
the acts of his reign his personal impress, so that Italy may 
through his example and his decision and purpose hold once 
more the high place among the nations to which she is entitled 
by her historic past. And, fortunately, he is well supported 
in his home. There is probably not a more happily married 
man in all Europe than the King of Italy, a man who cares 
more sincerely for a quiet, domestic life, and who is blessed 
in his wife and his three bonnie babes, the youngest of whom 
to the joy of the nation is a boy — Prince Humbert of Piedmont, 
as he is styled to recall the name and title borne by his 
grandfather. 

It may be said in a sense that Queen Elena was not born 
in the purple, and indeed when the Prince of Naples' deter- 
mined choice was first known, some few 

Queen Elena, aristocrats, including the Duchess of Aosta, 
whose husband was Heir Presumptive, failing 
issue from the Prince of Naples, made some caustic references 
to her relatively humble origin. For the little mountain 
principality of Montenegro is ruled over by a descendant of 
one of those mountain chiefs who distinguished himself in 
the constant warfare waged by this Highland people against 
their traditional and life-long enemies — the Turks. A rude, 
simple, stony land, where patriarchal manners and customs 
still obtain, the Princess had been inured to a plain, homely 



18 Italy of the Italians 

existence since her childhood, and though part of her education 
was given to her outside the rocky fastnesses of her home 
and amid Russian Court circles, as she had been destined 
for the Czar, she nevertheless had acquired all the civic 
virtues that distinguish her family. A fine musician on the 
violin, a lover of art and poetry, she writes a little herself 
in her native Servian tongue. A good walker, rider, and 
sportswoman, tall, and physically strong, she reveals in every 
action and movement her chaste, proud, mountain ancestry. 
The couple met first at the Venice Exhibition of 1895, and 
at once the Prince of Naples determined that Elena of 
Montenegro should be his bride. When opposition was made 
by Crispi for political reasons, he told his parents that if he 
did not marry Elena he would marry no other princess. 
Fortunately, King Humbert overbore the Minister's objections 
by declaring that he approved of the choice and that the 
Princess was the descendant of a brave race that had fought 
for liberty. " The house of Montenegro," he said, " like my 
own house, is synonymous with liberty." 

In October, 1896, the marriage was solemnized in Rome 
after the Princess had formally abjured the Greek Catholic 
faith in favour of the Roman Catholic form. Since that time 
she has been her husband's right hand and comfort. But 
all she does is done quietly, unobtrusively. Both husband 
and wife avoid all show and pomp whenever this is possible. 
Indeed, Italians complain that they lead too quiet and retired 
a life, and do not receive or show themselves enough. When 
passing through a city they continually request that the 
money that would have been spent in entertaining them should 
be given to the poor instead. For their charity is boundless. 
Indeed, the Queen's chief interest, outside of her family, is 
centred in the amelioration of the condition of the people, 
and especially in schools and charities for children. Like 
the King, she is an enthusiastic motorist, and in this way 
they are often able to appear unexpectedly in distant places 




Photo bv Guigoni & Bossi, Milan 

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN WITH THE PRINCESSES 



The King 19 

and to see with their own eyes whether matters are properly 
conducted. 

Were the King but an autocrat, as even the most Liberal 
cannot help wishing at times, how much faster reforms might 
be effected ! In that case Italy would attain more speedily 
to that high place among the nations to which she is inevitably 
tending. But he has to reckon with and to work with the 
Chamber. 

The Italian Parliament consists of two Chambers, an Upper 

and a Lower House ; the former is styled the Senate, the 

latter the House of Deputies. The number 

The Italian ^j Senators is unlimited and they are nomi- 

Parhament. , tj-- /• i-r -^^ ■, 

nated by the Kmg for life. They are chosen 

from men distinguished for State and other services, men 
who pay over 3,000 lire annually in taxes, and men who have 
three times been elected Deputies. They receive no salary, 
they meet rarely, and it may frankly be stated that their 
influence is slight. The House of Deputies, or the Chamber, 
as it is more commonly called, consists of 508 members, 
whose only qualification is that they must be Italian subjects 
and not less than thirty years of age. They, too, are unpaid, 
but, like the Senators, enjoy the privilege of free passes on 
all the trains and steamers of the realm. When elected, 
a deputy is given a gold medal about the size of a sovereign 
which he generally wears on his watch chain, and this serves 
as his pass. Each Parliament is supposed to last five years, 
but rarely attains that age. Every male subject who can 
read and write and pays 20 francs in direct taxation is qualified 
as an elector. The Kingdom is divided into electoral districts. 
The ofi&cial expenses are paid by the Commune, but the 
personal by the candidate himself. Bribery is forbidden by 
law, but occurs nevertheless in various forms. It does not, 
however, attain to such proportions as in England before 
the days of the Reform Bill of 1832. It is needful to remember 
this ere casting the Pharisaical stone. 
A very unfortunate institution, also copied from France, 



20 Italy of the Italians 

is the second ballot, which results in putting great power 
into the hands of the minority, as owing to it they can 

dispose of their votes to whichever party they 
^^B n^T"*^ please. This puerile, but in its effects most 

mischievous, invention is based upon the theory 
that it does not suffice for a man to have the largest number 
of votes but he must have a number equal to the half as much 
again as have been cast for his adversary. If this is not 
attained, a fresh election must take place. This not only 
prolongs the electoral agitation and disturbs the land, but 
opens the door for a number of undesirable expedients in 
order to obtain the missing votes. It was to this practice 
of a second ballot that Emile OUivier attributed the rapid 
downfall of the Third Empire. 

The Deputy elected, he takes his seat at Montecitorio, 
a seventeenth-century palace built by Bernini for the Ludovisi 

family and once the headquarters of the Papal 
^^D ^°t"^^ °* Law Courts. Its semi-circular inner courtyard 

has been converted into the auditorium and 
is only a wooden erection. Again and again has it been 
pronounced unsafe, and the project ventilated of erecting 
a building specially designed to meet modern requirements. 
The seats are arranged in fan shape, as in an antique theatre, 
flights of steps breaking the sections into divisions. Each 
member has his own place with a desk in front in which he 
can keep his papers ; this seat he retains during the whole 
life of the Parliament for which he is elected. As plans of 
the House can be bought, a stranger can thus at once ascertain 
the name of a member. The President who is elected by the 
House for one session only, holds a purely honorary office 
and receives no salary, neither has he any robes of office. 
When he wants to call the House to order he rings a small 
hand-bell, but if a tumult of Southern words is raging his 
efforts in this respect are often ludicrously ineffectual. He 
sits in the centre of a slightly raised platform, and just below 
level with the floor, sit the Ministers in gilt armchairs before 




Photo by elms. Aheniacar, Naples 

EXTERIOR OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES 



The King 21 

a long table. The general public are admitted to the various 
Tribunes that run round the semi-circular space. That 
reserved for ladies is not screened off as in our own House of 
Commons. The House meets daily at 2 p.m., and usually 
rises at 6.30, but it may sit as late as 10 p.m. If business is 
pressing it may even sit on Sundays. When a session opens 
the members are sworn in in a body. The President reads 
the oath, " I swear to be faithful to the King and to be faithful 
to all the laws of the State for the good of the King and the 
country," and the members answer " I swear." An easy 
and friendly tone obtains among the Deputies. They call 
each other " Tu " (Thou), always a sign of intimacy in Italy, 
even if they are strangers, as though to mark their solidarity. 
They are constantly on the move in the body of the House, 
talking with friends and foes. Still, despite all this friendly 
intercourse great attention is paid to outer forms. Onorevole 
(Honourable) is always prefixed to their names in public 
address, even when such scenes are raging as unfortunately 
at times disgrace Continental Parliaments. No time-limit 
is placed upon the speeches of members. If a speaker be a 
favourite he is generally surrounded by friends and admirers 
who interrupt his words with their applause. 

It is most unfortunate that the Italian Parliament is largely 
recruited from among lawyers and professional men and that 
there is such a marked absence of merchants, 
Class of manufacturers, and even of landed proprie- 
tors. Even the working class send lawyers 
as their representatives. And since these men love to hear 
themselves talk and are rhetoricians by nature and training, 
much valuable time is wasted in mere words spoken to impress 
those at a distance, and practical matters are neglected or 
but indifferently understood by these men of the pen and the 
office. Indeed, a member is often chosen because of his 
fluent speech and brilliant phrases, no matter how empty of 
ideas, rather than for his programme. Italians, like all 
Latins, are enamoured of words for their own sake. The 



22 Italy of the Italians 

cause for this may, however, be sought in their innate artistic 
and aesthetic sense and their fundamental idealism. Even 
were these men more practical, the proverbially short minis- 
terial life hinders great political and social projects from being 
studied and carried into effect. Both Ministers and Deputies 
dissipate too much of their force in forming little intriguing 
coteries. An ex-Minister once said that 
c"b ^1 *"*^ Italian Ministers were condemned like acro- 
bats to spend their strength in keeping their 
balance " on the tight rope," and hence lost their sense of 
freedom of motion for a more energetic and wider outlook. 
Party feeling over-rides patriotism, as is so often the case 
in Parliamentary countries, an evil which, according to Lord 
Rosebery, is growing in England. Intrigues and cabals to 
get one man in rather than another, a motion excluded or 
accepted, obscure the political sense of the members, and a 
lofty, disinterested patriotism, like that of the Japanese, 
becomes a rarity. 

And yet it was just the Italians who, at the time of their 
Risorgimento, possessed it in an eminent degree. It is a pity 
that for a while it seems to be engulfed in the party spirit. 
But political genius is not dead in Italy ; it is only temporarily 
overlaid. 

And yet, paradoxical though it may sound, while condemn- 
ing party feeling, one would like to see more of it in Italy, 
but of a healthier kind ; for party here so far rather means 
cliques and factions. The people have not yet properly 
grasped that constitutional government means party govern- 
ment, and that if there were organised parties in the land 
Parliament would be organised of its own accord, and would 
be liberated from the petty groups that compose it, and, 
united by no other ties but those of self-interest or friendship, 
are for ever dancing a chassez croisez hither and thither 
without higher purpose or aim. 

It is the Socialists, despite their impracticable Utopian 
doctrines, who have shown themselves of late years the 



The King 23 

purest and most upright section of Italian politicians. 
To their influence and to the fact that they and they 

alone understand the value of organisation 
The Aims of jg j^ ^^^ ^j^^^ parties are slowly beginning 

to harden into more shape and are no longer 
quite so gelatinous. It is possible, too, that now since the 
advent of an enlightened and tolerant Pope^ the prohibi- 
tion to Catholics to vote for the Parliament of the Usurper, as 
Pius IX described the King of Italy, will be removed and so a 
healthy Conservative party will be formed that will act as a 
wholesome brake upon theorists and doctrinaires and encourage 
the formation of a real Liberal party, such as Italy had of old ; 
these large divisions would then act and interact for the 
good of the whole country, which should after all be the 
ultimate aim of all party struggles. This ultimate aim had 
of recent years been entirely overlooked, and hence the people 
came to believe that there was an intimate and insoluble 
connection between politicians and speculators, both bent 
on exploiting the country, and both often expecting some 
return from the Government for doing some of its work and 
that not always of the highest nature. The return in question 
may be only a ribbon or a title. Victor Emmanuel II used 
to say " A cavalier's cross or a cigar is a thing one can refuse 
to no one." Indeed, an ex-Premier once remarked that 
" Italy is governed by decorations." Knights and Knight- 
Commanders (Cavalieri and Commendatori) are as plentiful 
as blackberries, and the titles have ceased to be a distinctton. 
" The organisation of the Italian State," says a poignant 
Italian critic, " is one great clientele and the peasants get 
no help because they are not part of the clientele." 

'• A Deputy," said one, in speaking of his mandate, " has 
to find posts for people, secure verdicts for his supporters, 
alike in civil and criminal cases, help others to pass their 
examination or get pensions, promote or oppose public or 
private contracts, get convicts released, civil servants punished 
or removed, obtain roads and bridges for his constituency." 



24 Italy of the Italians 

No wonder that yet another Deputy said in open Chamber 
that the Government was the spring and source of all the 
corruption of the land. 

Of course, we must not take all this too literally. Italians, 
like Englishmen, are given to sharp self-criticism. Corruption 
is an evil plant that does not flourish only on Italian soil. 
For an example we need only look across the Atlantic at the 
United States where things are done on a scale that puts all 
other nations to the blush. But the better-thinking Italians 
resent that their land, united at such cost of tears and blood 
and sacrifice, should fall the victim of exploiters and sink 
into the noisome slough. And this is the reason why so 
many of the best join the Socialist ranks ; 
The Socialists, for the Socialists have shown themselves 
fearless in exposing some of the worst scandals 
and many of their proposed economic reforms are admirable 
and necessary. So far, too, there have been few time-servers 
in their ranks. Turati, their leader, whose organ is the 
Critica Sociale, is a man of high character. Enrico Ferri, 
too, madcap though he be, a political Don Quixote, who 
sometimes runs up against wind-mills, is irreproachable in all 
respects, and the same applies to Pantaleoni, to Colajanni, 
and others. Owing to confusion and anomaly among the 
old parties, the Socialists, by a curious accident, have become 
the upholders of constitutional right. The Critica Sociale, 
wrote a keen political observer, " has endowed almost all of 
us with a social conscience." For it is quite true, as a member 
of the Chamber has admitted, that "it is the Socialists who 
have forced Parliament and the country to attend to princ pies 
and to forget personalities." No wonder that many persons 
hold that the future of Italian Parliamentary life lies with 
the Socialists. 

The only other coherent and compact party which under- 
stands the value of combination is that of the Clericals, whose 
influence so far is negative but who, like the Socialists, are 
the foes of the existent state of things. It is much to be 



The King 25 

hoped that the new Pope's truly liberal patriotism will put 
a stop to the anomaly of a clergy openly opposing the State 
and the Sovereign. 

The office of a Deputy, despite its privileges, is no bed of 
roses. It is apt, indeed, to become an agency for the satisfac- 
tion of the local interests and private affairs 
The Office of ^j ^j^g various voters in his district. Of this 
Deputy. -11 

I once had ocular proof, nor do I think had 

I not seen it I could have credited what proportions are 
assumed by' this abuse. It happened that on the occasion 
of an opening of Parliament b}/ King Humbert I was invited 
to attend, and a Deputy friend, to avoid the crush, indicated 
to me a back door beside which at a given hour I should find 
him waiting. I arrived in due time before what I thought 
the right door, and waited and waited. The time passed by. 
I heard the trumpet blowing the Royal fanfare. I realized 
the King had entered the House, and still no Deputy. So 
I ventured to open the door. Inside I found a most motley 
crowd, men and women, old and young, children, and even 
priests. After a time I noticed that each sent word by an 
usher that they wished to see the Onorevole So-and-So, who 
after a while either promptly appeared, or sent some message 
that seemed to satisfy the applicant. I grew amused and 
watched on. The opening of Parliament I could imagine. 
This I could not. After a time I realized what was going on 
arour d me. Here were the clients of old Rome who followed 
the patricians in a changed garb, but with unchanged demands. 
And what demands ? Impossible to imagine them, so naive 
were some, of such colossal impudence were others. One 
old woman asked that her Deputy should let her son off his 
examinations, another asked that a schoolmistress should be 
transferred or dismissed, as she was not kind to her child. 
The applicants for bureaucratic posts, no matter how small, 
were countless. When I had had enough I thought I would 
try the trick myself. I called for my Deputy friend and 
promptly did he appear. It was all a misunderstanding. I 

3— (239 ) 



26 Italy of the Italians 

had mistaken the door. But his vexation that I should have 
seen thus behind the scenes was great. He need not have 
been so distressed. It was easy enough for me to grasp that 
the cause for all this must be sought in the imperfect political 
education of the people and that most of these demands, at 
least the most puerile, came either from the still backward 
south or from simple country folk — although truth compels 
me to state that all Italians, no matter of what class, still 
look upon the State as a good milch cow, who must render 
them some return for the money spent in taxes or for the 
material sacrifices endured for the sake of Unity. 

Institutions are reformed from within, not from without. 
When the Italian citizen is better educated politically, then 
the Parliament, too, will take higher rank. Italy will then 
return to her own highest level and the sons who have proved 
so little worthy of their fathers who made the land will be 
avenged in their grandsons. Upon its oncoming younger 
generation Italy can look with pride and confidence. ' ' Time, ' ' 
says an Italian proverb, " is a perfect gentleman," and many 
of the defects we deplore can and will yield to his pressure. 



CHAPTER II 

THE PRESS 

The moods of a, nation are revealed more fully in its news- 
papers than in its literature. This is as true of Italy 

as of any other land. If the Fourth Estate, 

The Italians as 3,5 regards its human representatives, is not 

Readers. *^^ power in Italy that it is in France or in 

England, its products are nevertheless of 
wide and far-reaching influence. Further, there does not 
exist in Italy a " reptile press " such as was the shameful 
outcome of Prince Bismarck's influence upon German journal- 
ism. The Italians are a great newspaper-reading population. 
A proof of this can be seen, for example, any evening at the 
cafes, or even in the theatres during the entr'actes, when the 
papers are hawked for sale and eagerly purchased. For in 
Italy, almost without exception, our ordinary custom is 
reversed, and newspapers are published late in the afternoon 
or evening. . The streets of the larger cities between 8 and 10 
at night resound with the shouts of third editions, some of 
these of papers that would seem never to have had a first 
or second issue. To observe the excited demeanour of the 
vendors one would imagine that events of world-shaking 
import had occurred. More probably it is nothing else but 
a murder or, better still, an emotional drama, that so agitates 
this rushing, hurrying mob who fall over one another as they 
rush out of the newspaper offices where they have received 
the journals fresh and damp from the press, or from the 
railway stations where they have arrived by train, carried 
by a special arrangement with the company as what is called 
fuori sacco (outside of the mail bags), and ready done up into 
packets to distribute to the various newsagents. Indeed, the 
whole affair is managed with a lightning rapidity, such as 
is not usually displayed with things Italian. More amusing 



28 Italy of the Italians 

even than in the large centres is the spectacle a small place 
presents on the arrival of the newspaper train or boat. The 
whole population seems to gravitate towards the platform 
or the pier, and hardly have the parcels been dealt out than 
every man's face is hidden by a printed sheet. The Italians, 
like the Athenians of old, are lovers of the news. As a proof 
I may mention that Italy takes the fourth place in Europe 
in the number of its newspapers. It boasts of 1,400, of which 
170 are dailies. 

And of what nature are these Italian journals ? The 
English tourist, accustomed to his native Brobdignagian 

broadsheets, is apt contemptuously to dismiss 

Characteristics them as " halfpenny rags that contain no 

Journals. news." They make a great mistake. It is true 

that these papers without exception only cost 
five centimes (one halfpenny) ; it is true that as a rule they 
consist of only one sheet of which the whole last page is 
usually devoted to advertisements ; nevertheless they are, 
taken as a whole, far from despicable, and some are of really 
remarkable merit and high literary standard. They may 
enjoy printing highly coloured accounts of crimes with great 
copiousness of detail ; on the other hand, they never debase 
themselves to manufacture in their offices news calculated 
to disturb the world's peace. Italy is not a rich country, 
the science of advertisement is still ill-understood and in its 
infancy, hence the papers cannot afford to be larger in volume ; 
but if they give less in bulk than the English and American 
Gazettes, what they do give is by no means always worthless. 
Italy can boast of some papers whose leaders even that 
magno organo, the Times, does not disdain to quote. 

Naturally and necessarily political journals of real import- 
ance can only live in the great centres of Rome and Milan — 

in Rome because it is the political capital, 

The Political jj^ Milan because it is the industrial centre 
Press* 

of the land. Before 1870 when Rome was 

taken over by the Italians only three newspapers were 



The Press 29 

published there and these were all clerical and organs of the 
Vatican. Only one has survived the Osservatore Romano, 
which exists in order to promulgate Vatican decrees and to 
break lances with the papers of the new regime, such as the 
Roman papers, the Tribuna, the Giornale d'ltalia, the Patria, 
or that mouthpiece of the Italian proletariat, the Avanti. 
The Tribuna is usually Ministerial, whatever Ministry happens 
to be in office, and as Ministries succeed one another with 
great rapidity in Italy, its colour is somewhat of the chameleon 
character. It is usually extremely well-informed as to foreign 
affairs, and has some excellent correspondents and contribu- 
tors. The Giornale d'ltalia, a late comer in the field, is politic- 
ally rather of a Liberal-Conservative nature. Its chief 
attraction, however, consists in the literary and scientific 
articles, one of which is published almost daily and which 
take a wide range over all departments of human thought 
and activity. There is a charm, a freshness, a modern 
agility about the journal that has assured it an instant success. 
The Avanti, the organ of the Socialists, is maintained by the 
clever device of a permanent subscription fund, to which the 
smallest contributions are welcome. Thus the members of 
the party, who, like Socialists all the world over, are well 
organised and compact, on happy or sad occasions send some 
lires or centimes to this fund as their obol with remarks such as 
" In memory of my dear defunct brother and comrade XX," 
or "The result of a bet among companions," or "As a cry of 
protest," or " To attest to our solidarity," and what not 
beside. This journal, of which the hot-headed but able 
scientist, Enrico Ferri. is one of the editors, is continually 
being suppressed for a couple of days, but it re- 
issues as sprightly and combative as ever. Whatever 
occurs of evil in the world — strikes, insurrections, revolutions 
and such like, finds its repercussion in the office of the Avanti. 
Instantly the police appears at its door some " comrades " 
are put into preventive confinement, fines are imposed, and 
the circulation for the day is perhaps suspended, Fgf 



30 Italy of the Italians 

though a large measure of freedom of the Press exists, such as 

was unknown under the sway of Popes and Grand Dukes 

and petty sovereigns, still a certain police 

Police supervision of newspapers continues, and a 

Supervision . , , , i j i_ 

of Newspapers, journal can be suppressed or suspended by 

order of the Prefects, though by a recent law it 
can no longer be sequestrated. This is really a somewhat 
clumsy and antiquated proceeding which usually defeats its own 
purpose, as in these days of rapid printing and diffusion a large 
number of copies have generally gone forth ere the police order 
arrives for their suppression. It is this anomalous state of 
things that has created a curious figure of Italian newspaper 
life, the gerente responsabile. This is a man of straw, more often 
than not an illiterate person, whose name is appended at the 
foot of the newspaper as the responsible authority. If the paper 
is sued it is he who has to appear, not the editor or the writer 
of the incriminated article, and if there is any imprisonment 
to sit out it is he who goes into goal. As a rule a gerente 
responsabile is paid so much a day when he does not go to 
prison ; if he goes there he lives at the expense of the State. 
This is certainly one way and an original one of earning a 
livelihood. In the Avanti this post is no sinecure. In 
high-class papers, such as, for example, the Corriere delta Sera, 
the gerente never has to sit out a term of punishment and the 
post is greatly coveted. The Corriere delta Sera, a Milanese 

paper, is about the best in Italy. It is 
An Independent committed to no political party, is absolutely 

independent, and has never accepted a 
Government subsidy or a bribe. It numbers among its 
writers senators, deputies, scientists and literati and it has 
excellent correspondents in the various European capitals. 
Its war correspondents, A. Rossi and L. Barzini, are un- 
equalled and unrivalled for quickness of observation (an 
Italian gift) and graphic presentation. Indeed, Barzini 
could make many a special correspondent look to his laurels. 
Thus, thanks to his smartness and pliability of circumstances, 



The Press 31 

he was, with the exception of Reuter's representative, the 
only journahst present at the historic and notable battle of 
Mukden in the late Russo-Japanese War. 

Another Milanese paper which, like the Corriere delta Sera, 
circulates through the whole of the land, is the Secolo, the 
organ of the Radical party. Its general tone and literary 
merits are not up to the level of the Corriere delta Sera, but 
it deserves mention for its persistent upholding of the standard 
of international peace. 

There are other local papers, too, which are meritorious, 
such as the Resio del Cartino of Bologna, the Giornate di Sicitia 

of Palermo, the Gazetta di Venezia of Venice, 
provincial j^^^ -^ would be tedious to enumerate their 

mere titles. Every city, too, possesses a 
local paper of a certain sensational stamp, of which the 
Messaggero of Rome is a typical example. This paper has 
been called " the official organ of the murdered, the throttled 
and the suicides." It is always well served with information 
of this kind, since it gives fifty centimes, after verification, 
to the person who first brings it such ghastly news. Hence 
it is not uncommon in the streets of Rome if people see a 
crowd before a house or an excitement in the road for them 
to pass by without asking its cause. "No matter," they will 
say, " we shall read it all later in the Messaggero." For 
specially sensational crimes extra editions are issued and 
greedily devoured. The reporting of such items is done in a 
manner that is peculiar to Italy, flowery, detailed, minute. 
And this applies to aU papers, even to the best, though the 
Messaggero carries off the palm in this line. I can best give 
my readers an idea of how it is done by printing an Italian 
skit on the subject, a skit which, incredible as it may 
appear, is really hardly exaggerated. 

" Yesterday at 4*7 seconds the cry of an elderly woman was 
heard issuing from the house no. 526 of the alley del Mancino, 
and to be precise, from that third window of the second 
floor that has sun blinds and was repainted in dark green 



32 Italy of the Italians 

a few days ago by Tobias Castracani, who has a wife, Ersilia, 
who is a shirtmaker in via del Burro no. 440, and a son 

Alberto, who is in the second elementary class 
Reoortinc Stvie ^^ ^^^ ^^^ Priorato, a school ably directed by 

Professor Alessandro Maccheroni, who studied 
in Florence, and whose old mother, Maria Maccheroni Conditi, 
still lives with a brother who studies architecture, aged 26, 
tall, fair-moustached, and having a wart on his left cheek, 
rather nearer the nose than the eye. 

" Hurriedly we ascended the steps of which there were 
fifty-six, and very badly kept, and indeed we are surprised that 
the landlord. Baron Bartolomeo Colleffe, who is still young, 
does not have them attended to ; it seems to be also the fault 
of his steward, Aristide Camorrini, who lives in via della 
Polveriera, letter Z, with an unmarried sister, but who two 
years ago was engaged to Terenzio Alchermese, living in via 
della Statuto no. 501, with his brothers Amedeo, Bertoldo, 
Tommaso, nicknamed the Moor, and his sisters Cammilla and 
Gertrudea, a fine tall girl, and Teresa," and so forth and so on. 
In such reporting there comes out the curious pedantic 
strain that is a notable characteristic of the Italian character, 

and seems to harmonize so ill with their 
^ Cr'tV m quickness of wit and rapidity of observation. 

It is this that makes them so fond of those 
purely academic discussions that also find an echo in their 
papers, and gives a peculiar tone to their criticism, 
even if the wording, the superlatives and the richly coloured 
adjectives makes it sound redundant to English ears. For 
in spite of these defects, the standard of literary and dramatic 
criticism is really elevated, approaching rather the French than 
the English model. The political leaders, too, are often 
excellent — well-argued, well-studied, well-informed, of breadth 
of statesmanship and vision and, curiously enough in this 
domain, of terseness of expression. Many an Italian journal- 
ist has passed from the newspaper office to a Deputy's seat 
in the Chamber, and even to the armchair of a Minister. 



The Press 33 

Neither journalism nor belles letires are lucrative professions 
in Italy. Everything of a literary nature is most inadequately 
remunerated. Thus, an Italian novel rarely sells more, if as 
much as, three thousand copies, of which the net profit is 
perhaps 1,000 francs (;^40) if it be by a popular author. The 
same applies to journalism. The men who embrace this 
profession really do so for love, and many do so love it. The 
Italian likes to express his exuberance of thought by word 
and by pen. 

But were other proof required that the Fourth Estate 
has come to take its place in Italy also, this would be furnished 

by the sumptuous quarters owned by 
Press^of°ItaJ*'^ *^^ Associated Press of Italy in the Piazza 

Colonna of Rome. Membership to this costs 
twenty-four francs a year, and election is by ballot under cer- 
tain professional restrictions. A member is entitled to various 
privileges ; beside the use of this building as a club-house or a 
resort, he gets reduction at specified shops, there are a number 
of doctors and lawyers who serve him gratis, there is an 
Old Age or Accident Pension Fund, and, further, the State 
concedes him annually a liberal number of journeys upon 
the railways or the State steamers at 50 per cent, reduction. 
In the Palace, that is the headquarters of this trades' union, 
are fine reception rooms, reading rooms in which papers from 
all parts of the globe can be perused, and a good reference 
library. Strangers passing through Rome easily secure the 
privilege of a temporary membership, for the Associated Press 
desires above all to be friendly and cosmopolitan in tone. 
Its President is usually a man notable in journalism or politics. 
Altogether Rome is the best place in which to realise what 
a privileged position has been obtained by the Italian Press. 

For them is reserved the best gallery in 
Ah'"?^* Parliament, where the inmates will often talk 

and dispute so loudly that the President of 
the Chamber cannot fail to hear, and not infrequently he will 
even reply to remarks he cannot pretend to be inaudible, 



34 Italy of the Italians 

with some witty word or pacificatory joke. In this newspaper 
tribune sits one lady, Signora Maria Calvini, though the 
female journalist is still a rare apparition in Italy. She is 
a militant Socialist, who writes reports of the Chamber, and 
also lectures to propagate feminine emancipation. Her 
special mission concerns the protection and legal rights of 
women and children, which in Italy are still in a somewhat 
primitive condition ; for example, no married woman can 
draw or sign a cheque on her own account, even if the money 
be her own. Her evidence is not accepted in a law court 
without her husband, and other mediaeval restrictions of the 
same kind. At Aragno's, the most chic caf6 in Rome, 
which is close to the Chamber, the Associated Press 
Palace, the Post and the Telegraph, the table reserved to the 
pressmen is noticeable for the loud excited talk of those who 
sit at it, drowning that of all the other guests. The Press 
is clearly privileged, and no consideration seems to be expected 
from it. At the Telegraph and Post Office the Government 
has put aside a special room, for the convenience of journalists 
where they can write and wire at their ease and which furnishes 
them with a species of club. 

Families and householders as a rule subscribe for their daily 

papers. Such subscriptions cost less than buying the paper 

separately, despite the fact that in that case 

^b"scribeJs ^^^y ^^^ ^^^^ through the Post ; for the 
Post, by a special arrangement with the papers, 
carries their matter at a cost that is infinitesimal. Indeed, 
dear though letter postage still is in Italy, the postage for all 
printed matter is very trifling and far cheaper than in England. 
Moreover Italy has other postal arrangements that England 
could copy with advantage, such as the convenient method 
of money-order cards and the cash-on-delivery system. To 
subscribers the newspapers ol^er every New Year a gift that 
may consist of a book, a picture, a piece of furniture, a case of 
liqueurs. It is difficult to understand how with their cheap 
subscriptions they can make this pay. No births or marriages 




< 


u 


Y. 


o 


K 


■Tl 


O 


W 


K-1 


< 


o 




u 


Ul 



Pi s 



The Press 35 

are announced in the Italian papers, only deaths. The 
sanctity of the home is jealously respected. Hence we meet 
with no interviews except such as concern politics, no man's 
house is described, no society ladies figure, there is no lifting 
of the veils ol privacy. An Italian would be pained and 
scandalized if the picture of his wife or mother or sister 
occupied a full page in a public journal. 

The Agenzia Stefani is the Renter of Italy. No newspaper 
has wires of its own because the Government exercises a 
censorship over all news. For the same 
Press Agencies, cause, too, obstacles are put in the way of 
telephonic extensions and the officials of the 
Ministry of the Interior have the right of listening to telephonic 
conversations whenever they deem it advisable. Some of 
the larger papers have now instituted telephonic commu- 
nication with Paris and get their news in this way. This 
includes extracts from the English papers, especially from 
the Times, so that the evening editions will bring all the 
latest information published by the French and English 
Press that morning. It is interesting to note the difference 
of outlook assumed by certain questions from the difference 
of geographical position from that of England. Noticeable, 
too, is the circumstance that far less interest is shown in sport 
or in mere money-making. 

Comic papers corresponding to our aristocratic Punch 
Italy has none. She has some humorous sheets and exceed- 
ingly witty they are at times, but refinement 
"<?L°/°"* is not their distinguishing feature, and they 
^"journal"^ are rarely fit to be seen in a lady's drawing- 
room. Indeed, Italian caricature has only 
quite recently been lifted, by means of men like Sacchetti, 
Pappiello, Galantara, and others, to the rank of an art. 
Sacchetti's pencil has passed in review all the artistic and 
literary personalities of the day, hitting off their personality 
and salient characteristics with a few bold, happy strokes. 
Political caricature is the speciality of the sociaUst artist. 



36 Italy of the Italians 

Galantara, who, in the anti-clerical sheet L'Asino passes before 
the public a procession of smug burghers and fat clerics, who, 
if they become at last somewhat monotonous, yet reveal 
his capacity as a powerful draughtsman. Among other 
Italian satirical papers I may name the Pasquino of Turin, 
the Fischietto of Rome, the Travaso, and the Guerin Meschino. 
In weekly literary journals, too, she is poor, though 
every year sees the rise and also the fall of some 
ephemeral sheets. It is a little mania just now, a form of 
sport among a section of the youngest men, to think they 
must found a newspaper to propagate and propound some 
little individual differences of thought or taste. Short-lived 
though these papers are as a rule, they are often by no means 
despicable, and contain the fresh, ardent aspirations of many 
a thoughtful youth. It is between the ages of 18 and 22 
that this form of sport manifests itself most frequently, for 
Italian young men mature faster than their English compeers. 
Of such sheets a permanent place has been secured by the 
Florentine Marzocco, founded by a group of d'Annunzio 
enthusiasts, and still the organ of the younger generation 
that here ventilates its aristocratic tendencies and its worship 
of Nietzschean force and strength. Its articles are always 
serious, high-toned and well written. A weekly, corresponding 

to our Illustrated London News, is the Illustra- 
^f^rnsfls^ ^*^***^ /^a/»a«a of Milan, furnishing excellent 

pictures of, and comments on, the week's 
events. The Nuova Antologia, a fortnightly review, corre- 
sponds to the French Revue des Deux Mondes. It was founded 
in the first instance by a group of Florentine patriots to 
propagate the views of Italian Liberals and to preach Italian 
Unity, and has never departed from the high political and 
intellectual standard thus imposed upon it. Later comers 
in the field are the high-class Emporium, published at Bergamo, 
which pays special attention to matters artistic, both modem 
and ancient, and whose illustrations are of rare excellence, 
and the more popular but eminently readable Secolo XX, 



The Press 37 

published in Milan, and also richly illustrated. In this 
periodical are always to be found articles dealing with interest- 
ing aspects of Italian life. As a sign of the times I must also 
note a new monthly, La Nuova Parola, dedicated to the pro- 
pagation of the new idealism with a bias towards theosophy 
and spiritualism. Among its contributors are some of the 
finest of the younger spirits of Italy. 



CHAPTER III 

LITERATURE 

" Let me make a people's songs, and I care not who make 
their laws," was the saying of a sage who recognised to the 

full the formative value of literature. And 
It ,9^*"?*^'" °* the formative value of literature is above all 
* great among a people like the Italian, 
rooted by descent in classicism and with whom consequently 
by atavism every intellectual manifestation at once takes 
a classic form. Indeed, to appreciate and understand current 
Italian literature a good knowledge of the classics is requisite. 
It is true that in the period immediately preceding Italy's 
political resurrection her literature in common with that of 
other European nations assumed a romantic garb ; but Roman- 
ticism in Italy was nevertheless essentially practical, 
paradoxical though this statement may appear, and was 
utilized merely as a disguise in order to advocate the aspi- 
rations towards freedom and national independence that 
were throbbing in the hearts of every good native of the 
Peninsula. 

When the Austrians had been finally driven out and Italy 
was almost made, literary production had fallen very low. 

Sentimentalism and banality were in the 

Period of ascendant. Italy furnished nothing better 
Depression. •' ° ^ 

than feeble imitations of French models. It 

almost seemed as though Italian literature, once so great, 

so noble, so cosmopolitan, was defunct, that it had died in 

giving birth to the third Italy. But during these years of 

depression, between 1860 and 1870, the younger generation 

was ripening and preparing itself for action. 

They had at last won political freedom. It was now time 

to win freedom in the field of intellect. Hence the first 

products of this healthy reaction necessarily assumed a 




GlOSVt: CARDUCCI 
from tlie portrait by Corcos 



hi^^ ^fjiiii^'>-y<Ji. -^ 'T' ^Ivt^v^^Vh. 



(H ffVr> «*«-(* 



T.yy, 




lViWk<4,^X 



Literature 39 

revolutionary character. The standard-bearer of this 
revolt was Giosue Carducci, the first, as he is still the greatest, 
of the poet-thinkers of the third Italy. 

And here a word may not be amiss to explain this expression 
" the third Italy," which meets us at every turn. It was 

Carducci who first employed it, thereby 
" "^t^l ^^"^ intending to convey the idea of a free Italy, 

of an Italy that proceeds upon its path 
towards happier destinies. The first Italy was held to be 
that which had given birth to the grandeur of ancient Rome, 
whence the eagles issued forth that conquered the whole of 
the known world. The second was that which the barbarians 
over-ran and subdued, which was partitioned among the 
stranger or involved in internecine warfare. The third is 
that which all the poets from Dante and Petrarch onwards 
yearned to behold, the Italy of the Italians renewed, re-born 
in art, literature, statecraft, in every manifestation of 

mental life. Giosue Carducci, to whose initia- 
Giosue ^j^g jg ^jyg ^jjjg ^g^gi ^jj^ far-reaching change 

that has, in a comparatively short time, 
come over the face of Italian literature, is still living, though 
he has recently resigned, on the score of ill-health, the Chair 
of Literature he held so many years at the University of 
Bologna. A rugged, uncompromising and somewhat churlish 
nature, who has not known how to make himself personally 
beloved, he was nevertheless revered as a teacher, and his 
scholastic influence has been deep and extended. Born in 
1835 in a humble home not far from the site of Shelley's 
funeral pyre, under the shadow of the Carrara Alps, his child- 
hood was passed in the country, within sight of the deep blue 
Mediterranean. Here he learnt to love nature, and indeed 
he learnt little else for a while, so that he was held somewhat of 
a dunce, for as he tells himself in a lovely poem concerning his 
childhood, his chief occupations were bird-nesting and throwing 
stones at the dark, austere cypress trees. It has well been 
asked whether this was a preparation for the stones he was 



40 Italy of the Italians 

to throw later on with his ringing verse and weighty prose at 
the men he deemed worthy of his disdain ? When, however, 
he entered the University he took to reading hard ; but he 
also played as hard, and his student pranks became proverbial. 
Already he was a pagan by inclination, a lover of Horace, 
and a follower of the Latin's light-hearted creed, and Horace 
has remained his favourite poet ; like that poet, too, he has 
loved the good wine of his native land, ii, unlike his model, 

he has not devoted his verse to chanting its 
I. til ^*cf^"* °' praises. Coupled with these affections was 

an ardent love of his country, and this love 
he has kept untarnished and intact until this day. From 
the first Carducci instinctively understood that the breath 
of life had vanished from the literature of his day and he 
wished, as he expressed it, that men should not divert them- 
selves with corpses. He felt that the moribund spiril of 
Romanticism must be combated at all costs and he therefore 
turned, as every Italian must turn by hereditary bias, towards 
the classics, and threw himself into what he designated as 
" a cold bath of erudition," studying assiduously first the 
Greeks, then the Latins, and then the Italian Mediaeval and 
Renaissance classics, and only in the end touching the more 
modern writers among whom the German Heine especially 
exerted a profound influence. It was in this wise that this 
" armour-bearer of the classics," as he styles himself, " who 
had lived among the phantoms of an ancient age," became 
himself a classic poet. No wonder, therefore, that his first 
poems were aggressive in form, and subversive in spirit. He 
is no epic poet who narrates objectively and only what he 
has seen or heard. Carducci can only write what he feels 
and feels deeply, and when he sings, as he does often, of 
historical events that have a great attraction for him — on 

which account he has also been styled " the 
" H'^t^°**' °^ P°^* °^ history " — he does so not in the spirit 

of a bard who calmly narrates the facts, but 
rather he deals with the impression that the incident has 



Literature 41 

made upon his own soul. And at the dawn of his artistic 
life his mental attitude towards his compatriots and towards 
the Italian Government was one of disdain. He was an 
ardent lover of freedom, a militant Republican, and in his 
songs he exalted such political rebels as Garibaldi and Mazzini, 
and cursed from the depths of his heart the shifty and decep- 
tive policy of Pope Pius IX. He was the singer of no faction, 
as little as he was the adherent of any political party. His 
aims were high and ideal, and he wept to see his beloved 
land the sport of the political quacks and time-serving oppor- 
tunists who had succeeded to the heroes of the national 
re-birth. In these early poems, eloquent, eager and sincere 
though they be, there is a violence of expression that some- 
times leads him into errors of taste. In those days, however, 
he was but little read and scarcely known outside the literary 
clique of Bologna. 

But in 1865 he made all Italy thrill with amazement, 
coupled in clerical circles with horror, by the publication of 
his famous " Hymn to Satan," that impassioned ode which 
it is said he wrote at one sitting, in a white heat of inspiration. 
At first, as might well be expected, this " war-song of pagan- 
ism " was misunderstood and looked upon as a wholly 
irreverent, not to say, blasphemous utterance. When it 
came to be explained, however, and Carducci's cryptic meaning 
made clear, the intellectual world recognised that this was no 
mere irreverent vituperation. The Hymn was intended as 
the expression of a revolt against asceticism and mysticism, 
against the authority of the Church and the obscurantism 
of the priests. Satan does not stand here for the Semitic 
spirit of evil. He embodies the revolt in favour of classicism, 
the desire for intellectual freedom ; and though the poem 
undoubtedly assails Christianity, or, to be more accurate, 
the Mediaeval Church, it does so in no ribald spirit of license. 
Satan is here invoked merely as the undying, unconquerable 
spirit of freedom and progress. He is the herald of that 
return to Nature and love of Nature which has been one 

4— (2395) 



42 Italy of the Italians • ' 

of the chief motive forces in the new school of Italian literature, 
and must, therefore, be reckoned with. The present revival 
of Italian literature is due to a re-awakening of the same spirit 
that produced the Italian Renaissance, and we know how 
wide and deep and far-reaching were its consequences. 

Italy has already twice led the van of civilization in Europe. 
Will she do it yet again and a third time ? 

These insurrectionary poems were followed by more 
tranquil ones, but though Carducci's art grew more serene, 
and hence more beautiful, never did he strive to curry for 
popularity, and nowhere does he hesitate, whether in his 
concise verse, or his grand and adamantine prose, to flay 
the sickly poetasters of his day, regardless whether these be 
foes or friends. Once again he roused general interest and 
fierce discussion when he issued the first series of his famous 

lyrics which he gave forth with the collective 
" Odi Barbari." title of " Odi Barbari," a title that sounded 

strange indeed to characterize most exqui- 
sitely polished verse. The qualifying word needs a little 
explanation. 

With these Odes Carducci introduced into the Italian 
Parnassus a new form of metre, that has since been almost 
universally adopted by the younger men. He was weary of 
the old facile metres to which the Italian language lends 
itself so easily that they became almost mechanical. He also 
considered that these much-used forms had lost their freshness, 
and hence could not give vigour and tone to modern modes 
of thought. In reality this new departure was but a return 
to antiquity, a use of the metres employed not only by Horace 
and Catullus, but also by the earlier Greeks, in which quantity 
furnished the rhythm. Carducci's originality consisted in the 
fact that he recognised that quantity produces no echo to 
our modern ears, and that he strove, and with success, to 
produce the same effect by means of accent whether of word 
or verse. He wrote : 



Literature 43 

" I hate the accustomed verse. 
Lazily it falls in with the taste of the crowd, 
And pulseless in its feeble embraces 

Lies down and sleeps. 

For me that vigilant strophe 
Which leaps with the plaudits and rhythmic stamp of the chorus 
Like a bird caught in its flight, which 

Turns and gives battle. 

The Odi Barbari are so termed because they would so sound 
to the ears and judgment of the Greeks and Romans, although 
composed in the metrical forms belonging to the lyrical poetry 
of those nations, and because they will, too truly, so sound 
to very many Italians, although they are composed and 
harmonised in Italian verses and accents. 

This perhaps rather dull explanation is needful, for without 
the key most English readers would think that modern 
Italian poetry was not poetry at all, at least not according 
to the recognised English models. 

Thus, once again the Italians have initiated a new literary 
departure, though, of course, Carducci's bold experiment was 
at first derided and combated. But, in the end, opposition 
gave place to admiration, and later on to imitation. 

It was after the third volume of the Odi Barbari saw the 

light that Carducci became converted from Republican to 

monarchical ideas. This conversion raised a 

A Convert to storm of indignation at the time among his 
Ideas. older friends, the more so as it was attributed, 

and perhaps not incorrectly, to the fascination 
exercised over the already elderly poet by the winning smiles 
of Queen Margherita, an eager admirer of the poet's verse. 
It was held as a reproach that he who had glorified the French 
Revolution in twelve sonnets of statuesque strength, entitled 
" Ca Ira," should bow the knee to Royalty. Carducci bore 
this abuse with the same serene indifference with which he 
bears praise or blame, and though he now votes with the 
monarchical party he has never become a courtier in any sense 
of the term. 



44 Italy of the Italians 

With the pubHcation of " Rime e Ritmi " Carducci closed 
his poetic career, a worthy finale containing some of his finest 
verse. In a brief Farewell appended to the 
Complete volume he says that as the stars are setting 
Carducci 's Works. ^^^ him into the sea of the unfathomable, so 
likewise songs are dying out from within his 
heart. This renunciation of further literary effort has per- 
mitted the publication of a final edition of his prose and poetic 
works, revised by himself and therefore standard. They are 
clearly printed in two volumes on thin India paper, at a small 
cost, and well deserve to be acquired by those who can read 
the originals. For those who cannot a fair idea of their 
character may be gathered from a selection translated by 
Frank Sewell. Briefly, it may be stated that the sentiments 
that inspire and animate all Carducci's writings are an intense 
veneration for the poets of Greece and Rome with whom he 
feels himself in intellectual sympathy, a profound love of 
Nature, such as the ancients felt and which we moderns 
characterize as pagan, a love, that is, of external nature, 
devoid of a search after such mystic meanings as are lent 
to it by the Northern mind, a love, too, for all that ministers 
to purely sensuous pleasure, and as a third factor the Hellenic 
instinct of form, and a repulsion against all that is supernatural 
and against what he would define as the Gothic spirit. 

It would be idle to contend that Carducci is popular, 
though unquestionably he is the greatest and prof oundest con- 
temporary Italian poet. For this he is too 

Italy's Debt to erudite and often too obscure, and his themes 

Carducci. , r i i i i 

too, are rarely of a popular character, and 

rarely treat of that chief theme of poets, Love, But he is 

universally respected, and Italy is justly proud of him, and 

none are found to deny that it is to him that she owes her 

present literary revival, that it is owing to his example and 

influence that the third Italy already boasts a long and noble 

roll-call of illustrious names. 

Next in literary importance to Carducci, though widely 



Literature 45 

different in character and achievement, indeed only meeting 

upon the common ground of Hellenism, is the 

Gabnele younger, more popular, and perhaps, outside 

of Italy, more widely known writer, Gabriele 

d' Annunzio. A poet, a play-writer, a novelist, he has achieved 

distinction and fame in all three departments, nor would it 

be easy to say in which he has reaped the proudest laurels, 

though it may be asserted that in all and above all else, even 

when writing prose, d'Annunzio is a true poet. A pity that 

he has not put his muse to such noble uses as has Carducci, 

that the serpent trail of eroticism too often defiles it, that his 

outlook on life is sometimes base and sensual, his ideas 

unclean, and his paganism epicurean. 

Until comparatively recently fierce controversies waged 
about d'Annunzio's name, and lavish praise alternated with 
equally lavish blame. But to-day after he has given forth 
the latest fruits of his intellect, it is idle to deny that 
d'Annunzio is a great artist. Even the adversaries of yester- 
day admit so much. It is equally idle to deny that he is no 
moralist, and that his works are not for the " young person." 
But these two points, and especially the latter, are, after all, 
not the standard of artistic merit. His domain is life as seen 
under its material and intellectual aspects, and he does not 
pretend to gloss over or minimize what are to him realities. 

D'Annunzio's career, which has been as rapid as it is 

brilliant, began at the early age of fourteen, when still a 

schoolboy, by the publication of " Primo 

Earlier Works yero," followed at 16 by " Canto Nuovo." 
of d Annunzio. "^ 

Both books instantly attracted attention, 

and, like Byron, D'Annunzio awoke one morning to find 

himself famous. This fact is the more curious because as a 

child he hated poetry, and when being set at school to write 

50 lines on the subject of Thermopylae, he only succeeded 

after much pain and grief in turning out three, though now 

he is only too prolific. In his case, truly, the child was not 

the father of the man. His first books already showed his 



46 Italy of the Italians 

metrical aptitude and wonderful verbal dexterity. In 1883 
there followed " Intermezzo di Rime." This book, in which 
he gave vent to his insatiable thirst after life and love, might 
be dismissed as a youthful aphrodisiacal utterance, were it 
not also something deeper and more significant. With its 
publication D'Annunzio at one bound became the leader of 
a school that has had a vast influence upon modern Italian 
literature, a school whose characteristics, to use his own words, 
" were the abuse of colour, the employment of unusual 
expressions and a great audacity in erotic description." 

At about this time D'Annunzio, who was born at Pescara, 

in the Abruzzi, beside that Adriatic whose salt sea savour 

sounds in his pages, removed to Rome, 

^"^Rom? °* ^^^^^ ^^ frequented that high society in 
which love is only a form of sport. In Rome, 
too, he could contemplate the art and poetry of the past, yet 
curiously enough the Eternal City did not enlarge his horizon 
and enrich his personality, but only inspired works in which 
he expanded his voluptuous fantasy. Hence it was not the 
Rome of the Caesars that held him spellbound, but the Rome 
of the Popes, with its sumptuous villas, its highly ornate 
churches, its ever-murmuring caressing fountains. The pages 
of " Libro delle Vergini " and " San Panteleone " teem with 
pathological and cruel spectacles. Our author here shows 
traces of Zola's sway, but the side of Zola which most appeals 
to him is that seen in " La Faute de I'Abbe Mouret." 
It was inevitable, too, that since the naturalistic school was 
then at its apex, he should be touched by its spirit ; but it was 
merely an imitation of a tendency, since his own artistic 
personality was always uppermost, with its peculiar merits 
and its defects. Some of the tales in " San Panteleone " are, 
however, direct imitations of Maupassant, though even here 
the imitation is more apparent than real, since the art and 
method of treatment are so different. 

It was during the period of D'Annunzio's Roman sojourn 
(1886-1893) that he wrote " Sotteo," "La Chimera," "Le 



Literature 47 

Elegie Romane," " II Poema Paradisiaco," in the sphere of 
poetry, and the novels, " Giovanni Episcopo " and "L'lnno- 
cente." "Sotteo" displays his study of ancient bards both in 
versification and in the manner in which he wove conceits and 
poetic garlands for the women he loved. In " Elegie Romane" 
breathes the whole amplitude of the Roman Campagna with 
its fiery sunsets, its oppressive solitudes. Similar sentiments 
are roused by " Poema Paradisiaco," but here there pre- 
dominates besides a sense of sadness, the satiety of exhausted 
passion. Small wonder that many of these productions were 
attacked on the score of immorality. D'Annunzio had 
wandered too far from the Latin sobriety of Carducci. Never- 
theless he declaimed against realist verse. He asserted that 
the essence of poetry was mystery and that poets should give 
to mankind the record of things they have never seen. " I 
hold," he wrote, " that the poetry of the future will have all 
the mystery and suggestiveness of great music. In lyric 
poetry the essential element is not the word, it is the music ; 
it is not the word as letter but the word as sound and rhythm." 
But excessive adulation and his really phenomenal early 
triumphs had a little turned D'Annunzio's head, and small 
wonder. This passing phase of sensual 
Longer Novels, satiety led to what he described as a con- 
valescence of the soul, and to render this the 
more complete he returned for a while to live among his 
Abruzzi mountains and beside the sea that he has always 
loved so ardently because of its fierce freedom and its mystic 
suggestiveness. Here he turned to writing longer novels, 
of which the first, " II Piacere," again offended against good 
taste by its frank voluptuousness, but nevertheless contained 
some splendid passages of description expressed in the lavish 
luxury of phrase, the extravagance of dictum and imagery 
that is his keynote and which fatigues after a while because 
of its too uniform splendour. The hero, Andrea Sperelli, 
like the protagonist of most of his romances, is the incarnation 
of his own curious complex and degenerate Ego. In 



48 Italy of the Italians 

" Giovanni Episcopo " and " L'Innocente " can be found 
traces of that Russian literature which was just then in the 
ascendant in Italy. The fundamental thesis of both books 
is similar, and once more lascivious sentiment dominates, 
mingled with morbid pathos and vivid landscape pictures. 
In truth D'Annunzio resembles that Marchesa di Monferrato 
of whom Boccaccio speaks, who knew how to make an in- 
finitude of dishes, but though they had different names 
and looked differently they were all chicken. 

In " II Trionfo della Morte," pubhshed in 

dellJ'MMte ^^^^' ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ influence of 
Nietzsche. Already in 1892 D'Annunzio had 
published an article in which he announced to the Italian 
world his discovery of this German philosopher, adding, how- 
ever, that he himself had long been a follower of these 
theories without knowing their origin. 

The " Trionfo della Morte " is certainly D'Annunzio's 
strongest novel, not because of its plot, which is of the slightest, 
but for its exotic and artistic treatment. The hero, Giorgio 
Aurispa, is as usual an incarnation of the writer under another 
aspect. Again, descriptions of rare beauty abound, especially 
that of a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Casalbordino, which 
has become almost a classic. The influence of the Frenchman 
Barres, together with that of Nietzsche, can be found in the 
" Vergine delle Roccie," another book of unpleasant central 
purpose, leaving a bad aesthetic taste behind it. Blood, 
carnage, and lust are invoked and panegyrized with nauseous 
reiteration, while the main thesis, supposed to be founded 
upon Nietzsche, is an absolute perversion of the chief con- 
tentions of that philosopher. And yet again what redeeming 
descriptions of old Italian villas, of secluded gardens, of floral 
wealth. If, to be paradoxical, we could have D'Annunzio's 
novels without his plots and personages, how splendid they 
would be ! The language, too, of what exquisite harmony, 
even if at times it is too redundant, too prolix, for D'Annunzio 
becomes intoxicated with the sound of his own splendid diction. 



Literature 49 

Up to this point D'Annunzio had shown himself as a 
voluptuous artist who fashioned for himself an environment 
adapted to his artistic egoism. Reading his 
Patriotic works no one would apprehend that he could 
also be a great patriotic poet. But his artistic 
soul and complex personality has more proxies than that of 
Dr. Jekyll. He who delights in epicurean ease, who appears 
the incarnation of a decadent, suddenly showed himself 
endowed with virile vigour, putting forth a series of inspiring 
Odes that appealed to Italy's most manly feelings. In these 
" Odi Navali " he chanted the glories of those huge battleships 
which Italy was the first to construct, of those agile and 
insidious torpedoes that can wound to death these marine 
Colossi. This was followed, with that wonderful prolific 
rapidity that is his, by the "Canzone di Garibaldi," wherein 
is celebrated the great Italian hero. Here figure neither the 
Italian people nor those ideas that conduced to Italy's resur- 
rection. The first section treats of war, the second is an 
idyll. The Garibaldian heroes are brought in with fine 
pictorial effects and certain episodes are of potent and en- 
chanting force. The idyllic note is furnished by Garibaldi's 
return to the island of Caprera, bringing naught with him 
as a recompense for having bestowed a free fatherland on the 
Italians, save a sack of grain. In this " Canzone " 
D'Annunzio has revived the lassa or monorhyme habitual 
to the chanson de gesie, which deriving from the Carlovingian 
cycle, came into Italy in the latter half of the fifteenth 
century. 

A painful book, even to D'Annunzio's warmest adherents, 

was the novel " II Fuoco," for its veil of disguise was too thin 

not to permit of a comprehension as to the 

A Painful Book, original of the great actress described therein 

with a lack of tenderness and good taste that 

offended the more, as all the world knew how deeply the writer 

was indebted to this lady. Learned discussions concerning 

Venetian art, fine impressions of the lagoons, subtle fantasies, 



50 Italy of the Italians 

did not suffice to redeem this book from the charge of Use 
friendship. It is a rehef to turn away to the two volumes 
of " Laudi/' wherein D'Annunzio has touched his high-water 
mark. The first is a complete poem dealing with a voyage 
taken to that land of Hellas, which is sacred to the writer 
as the cradle of civilization, and his return to Rome, where 
he finds a quiet, undisturbed asylum in the Sistine Chapel, 
wherein he hopes to recover faith in himself. In the end, 
however, in order to touch the apex of wisdom, he quits even 
this for the desert where he recovers self-mastery in solitude 
and learns to comprehend that harmony of life which man has 
tarnished. Thus, as ever, D'Annunzio can write nothing 
purely objective. Sooner or later his own person must come 
to the fore. Nevertheless, the poem is no sentimental 
journey, no search for a deeper soul such as the " Divina 

Commedia." It rather resembles Heine's 
'^^'praS'st! °^ " Germania." And because in this book 

D'Annunzio lauds all things, because he has 
known how to enjoy all things he has named it " Laudi." 
But it is the second volume that constitutes his grandest 
attainment, and which will survive when his unpleasanter 
works are consigned to Limbo, rescuing thence only for some 
prose Anthology many of the magnificent natural descriptions. 
This second " Laudi " is divided into two books of which one 
is dedicated to " Electra " and the other to " Halcyon." 
In " Electra " D'Annunzio strives to temper the souls of his 
compatriots towards loftier idealisms than those of the daily 
petty squabbles of party politics. He exalts the grand 
prophetic soul of Dante and then apostrophizes the young 
King and asks him, he who is so sincerely thoughtful concern- 
ing the destinies of his kingdom, whether he is acquainted 
with all the beauty and the power that is the heritage of the 
Italian soil. He lauds the potent Italian cities, he recalls 
their ancient grandeur, their civic virtues, he also speaks of 
Trieste that beckons to its parent from across the Italian seas ; 
he breaks into strains of indignation and fury against those 



Literature 51 

who have lowered Italy in the eyes of the nations by vile and 
shameful transactions. He glorifies the proud soul of Giosu6 
Carducci. This section is written in the severe, restricted 
metre of Petrarch's " Canzone " ; it lends itself less to diffuse- 
ness than " Terza Rima," and in its perfection of form and 
noble aims represents a high stage of artistic development. 
In the book " Halcyon," the poet, after having sung and 
lauded the Italian heroes, turns to earth and Nature and 
praises them. He here gathers together all the impressions 
made on his soul at sight of these beauties. Matter and 
manner are here blended with taste and perception into a soft 
and liquid harmony that makes us regret the more that 
D'Annunzio's Muse does not always soar in these Parnassian 
heights. His soul, though it has remained pagan, is here 
suffused with a new breath of purity and therefore this is 
the only one of his books which can be unrestrictedly praised. 

Unfortunately, his plays, despite their lyric beauty, prove 
that a love for the gory, for license, for the gross, the abnormal, 
has not been eliminated from his nature. 

The Plays of g^^ here, too, his influence has been far- 
reaching and revolutionary. Here, too, he 
has striven after that richness of speech which distinguishes 
his novels and poems, whereby he has recalled the writers 
of his land to the fountain head of their language, the four- 
teenth-century poets, thereby enlarging and ennobling speech 
while rendering it, it must be confessed, just because of this 
enhanced wealth, more difficult of comprehension to the 
foreigner. 

It was in 1896 that D'Annunzio first came forward as a 
play- writer with his " Dreams of the Seasons," novel in 
theatrical method but revolving round the favourite 
D'Annunzian motives, plays rather adapted to reading than 
to performance. The " Gioconda " was more dramatic, and 
since it was first interpreted by the Duse for whom it was 
written and whose beautiful hands were, so to speak, the 
heroines of the piece, it quickly met with favour. Here at 



52 Italy of the Italians 

least, though an unpleasant incident is not lacking, 
D'Annunzio expounds a fine central purpose, the extolling 
of the power of pain as a great moral regenerator. The 
heroine, Silvia Settela, to save the masterpiece of sculpture 
that her husband has wrought, loses both her hands while 
preventing its fall, those hands which were her beauty and 
her glory. Deeply touching is the scene at the end where, 
owing to her mutilation, she cannot give her little child 
the embrace it craves from its mother. 

His next play, " La Gloria," was less successful ; indeed, 

on its first appearance it was hissed off the boards. It was 

intended to be a political and at the same time 

other ^Dramas ^ symbolical drama, and rather fell between 
two stools. It aimed at revealing the 
persistent fever that bids the multitude ever clamour for 
something new. After this attempt to deal with modern 
Parliamentary life D'Annunzio took a leap back into mediaeval 
times and wrote his poetic tragedy " of dream and crime," 
" Paolo e Francesca," in which he does not follow the develop- 
ment of the tale as told in Dante's immortal lines. In diction 
it has all D'Annunzio's richly- coloured splendour and sonorous 
harmony, its erudition reproduces faithfully the manners and 
environment of the epoch, but for pure human pathos it falls 
far below the telling of that sorrowful tale of love and woe 
in Dante's eight pregnant lines. In "La Figlia di Jorio " 
and " La Fiaccola sotto il Moggio," both weird and gruesome 
productions, D'Annunzio deals with the customs and charac- 
ter of his wild, untutored Abruzzese and Neapolitan country 
folk, and both on this account lend themselves to picturesque 
scenic effects. Picturesque, too, if less dramatic, and once 
again marred by an unpleasant episode which was obviously 
introduced as a challenge to common morality, as it is in no 
sense an integral necessity to the action, is " La Citta Morta." 
As a reading play it has passages of great lyrical beauty, as 
an acted play it drags a little for lack of constructive action. 
D'Annunzio's design was to compose a modern drama on the 



Literature 53 

lines of ancient tragedy, imagining circumstances to-day that 
reproduce the Fate of the Greeks. But modem ideas and 
ethics are not Greek ideas and ethics, and however much we 
may strive to do so, we cannot really reproduce or cause others 
to feel the mental atmosphere of a civilization that has 
vanished. 

Certainly, despite his grave failings, his moral twist, 
D'Annunzio's influence has been great and also beneficial. 
What he has done for the theatre can be 
,^***"* °^, shown perhaps more clearly when I deal 
Influence. ^^^^ *^i^ phase of Italy's mental life ; but 
there is another branch in which also he has 
made a big revolution, and that is in the matter of the manu- 
facture of his books. He has insisted on fine type, hand-made 
paper, artistic binding, and first-class illustrations, so that 
the outside as well as the inside of book or play may be a 
work of art. And this delicate tribute to intellectual pro- 
duction has, thanks to his example, become so universal 
that the poor paper and cheap printing of the past has almost 
become extinct and every book of any merit that is issued 
is more or less an edition-de-luxe, an edition-de-luxe, too, 
issued at a moderate price accessible to all purses. He has 
been the William Morris of Italy, and, like Morris, has revived 
the old founts of type, the good old patterns of binding, 
though, of course, being Italian, these take on a Renaissance, 
and not a Gothic character. 

It is some years now since D'Annunzio left his native 
Abruzzi and settled himself in the pretty little Tuscan vil- 
lage of Settignano, near Florence, living in a house that he has 
adapted and furnished in fifteenth- century style. He loves 
the mystic and soft serenity of the Tuscan landscape, with its 
grey-green olives and dark green cypresses, its climbing vines— 
and to this landscape he has penned some lovely verses. 

That Carducci and D'Annunzio both became objects of 
imitation goes without saying, and many of their followers 
are by no means despicable poets. Minor poets, too, 



54 Italy of the Italians 

Italy has by the score, and melodious and delicate works 
spring from their lyre. The language itself, with its 
fluent vowels, its rich harmonies, its swell- 
Lesser Poets, ing cadence, lends itself to versification, and 
few Italians, no matter of what class, but can 
turn out graceful verse even at a moment's notice. Indeed, 
improvisation is a gift among high and low, and many an 
uncultured peasant who can neither read nor write, will pro- 
nounce as though by inspiration stanzas and ballads that can 
be put down direct to paper and are perfect in all respects. 
I have myself been present when an illiterate peasant, dressed 
as Father Christmas, handed out to each person of a large 
company the gift designed for him or her, of whose contents 
and destination he knew nothing until at the very moment 
of presentation, accompanying each parcel with a neatly- 
phrased and appropriate couplet, and even a sonnet. This, 
coupled with the perfectly courteous manners of the pea- 
santry, especially in the ancient realm of Etruria, is yet 
another proof of the ingrained and inherited culture of this 
ancient people. 

And the peasant, too, has found his bard and modern 

exponent. The only one of the Italian Parnassus who can 

really stand worthily beside Carducci and 

Giovanni D'Annunzio, and whose influence is as deep 

and broad, is Giovanni Pascoli. He may be 

defined as Italy's living Georgic poet, a direct descendant in 

Apollo of Virgil, not Virgil the extoller of " pious Aeneas," 

but Virgil, the singer of the beauties of Nature, that were to 

him also an inexhaustible fountain of inspiration. 

As yet Pascoli is little known outside his native land, per- 
chance because the nature of his gifts is not of a kind calculated 
to provoke polemics. But he is, nevertheless, a true poet 
by the grace of God. His songs have nothing in common 
with the pastoral poetry of the imaginary Arcadies that were 
so fashionable at one time ; they derive their impetus direct 
from the soil and are not seen athwart conventions and 



Literature 55 

artifices. And in his case, too, the life explains the artist. 
Giovanni Pascoli was born in 1855 in the 
Life xn the Romagna, a province which to this day pre- 
serves a marked individuality. Indeed, indi- 
viduality is a curious and notable feature — all parts of Italy 
and districts and cities have almost the idiosyncrasies of 
human beings. " Romagna the sturdy " is the name of 
Pascoli's country, and certainly its inhabitants have ever been 
distinguished for their strength and martial spirit. To this 
day the Romagnoli are hospitable and fearless, just as they 
were when they sheltered Dante from the wrath of Florence. 
Their generous, deeply religious spirit is quickly moved at 
the sight of sorrow, and the weak appeal to their innate 
chivalry. And beside these traits and a hot-bloodedness that 
drives them into acts of vendetta, there exists a certain 
mystic and intangible susceptibility in these strong souls, 
a species of intuition of a Fate against which man cannot 
fight. Hence they accept silently all that life brings to them, 
and do not kick against the pricks. This sensibility very 
naturally leads them to Nature, and indeed nowhere else 
in Italy do even the great nobles live so close to the soil as 
here, enjoying the simple pleasures she can offer. 

Such was the mental and moral environment into which 
Pascoli was bom. His father was a humble factor whose 
murder by an unknown hand for causes never discovered, 
when the boy was twelve, cast a shade of tragedy over his 
life, and made him at one fell blow the head of a large family 
of children. The catastrophe broke the mother's heart and 
she died soon after, but not before three of her children had 
preceded her. The survivors, Pascoli and two sisters, clung 
the more closely together, and have so clung to this day, for 
Pascoli has never married, and probably never will. These 
heavy blows of fortune made him a poet. The memory of 
these deaths throbs through his verse, his sorrow is ever to 
the fore, but it is a resigned sorrow ; he does not quarrel 
with his Creator, he has not lost his faith. " Myricae" 



56 Italy of the Italians 

was the title of his first book, given to the world many 
years after his poems had already circula- 

FirsnBook *^^ ^^ ■^^^* ^^^^S his friends. He defined 
them as mere windfalls, the fruit from the tree 
he hoped would come later. To Pascoli's great surprise the 
book met with success. Its simple character, its love of 
Nature, were a relief after the hot passions sung by the 
poets of the D'Annunzian school or the classicisms of Carducci's 
followers. The dominant note in this and in Pascoli's sub- 
sequent volumes is an invitation to love life and to bless it, 
since life despite all is beautiful, and it would be still more so 
if we did not so often spoil it wilfully for ourselves and others. 
Let us then gather gratefully the little herbs (Myricae) that 
grow beside our paths and enjoy their fragrance so fully as 
to exclude any desire for more potent odours. 

Thus Pascoli by his verse unwittingly destroyed a con- 
ception that has ever been deeply rooted in the Italian mind, 
and this is that poetry, in order to be poetical. 

Optimism and jnust either find its themes and its inspiration 
Ideahsm. . , , , • , n- t • 

m the past or take rhetorical flights into an 

imaginary and impossible Future. The present, the poets 

contended, is unpoetical. It was reserved to Pascoli to 

destroy a prejudice in the Italian mind, which in England 

had long been overcome by the Lake school and their followers. 

Pascoli's attention is centred on the present and he sings of 

it as he sees it, or if he deals with the future he regards it as 

the sphinx that awaits man at the end of his pre-ordained 

course, there to bestow on him the key to life's enigma. 

Pascoli, in short, is a serene optimist who has struck a new 

and well-defined note of idealism as opposed to the current 

Italian realism. There is a sixteenth- century classicism 

about his verse, though it is at the same time attentively 

modern in its aspirations and its humanitarianism. And yet 

another curious feature. Although he deals with family 

affections, Pascoli never writes of love in the sexual sense. 

Quite recently he has been elected to fill the Chair of Literature 



Literature 57 

at Bologna left vacant by the retirement of Carducci, but in 

the vacation months Pascoli continues to reside in the Tuscan 

country-side, and above all it is Barga that he loves, a little 

hill-hamlet, enclosed in chestnut woods, which, despite its size, 

can boast a Romanesque Cathedral, and many other 

reminiscences of art. 

It is curious that novel-writing has so far, except the 

notable examples named, been the weakest branch of the 

literary revival, while poetry has been its 

The Place of the strongest. This is no encyclopaedia, and it 

Novel in the ° , t j. j. xt. 

Literary Revival, would be wearisome merely to enumerate the 

many men and also the few women who 
have distinguished themselves in this line. But it is certainly 
to be regretted that in the matter of novel-writing current 
Italian literature is not stronger, for themes should not be 
lacking, and above all it would be well to follow in the tracks 
laid down by Verga and deal with the very marked differences 
of national character that are to be found in a land where 
divergencies of temperament and customs are so marked 
as to seem at times almost impossible, when we remember 
that the whole country is living under one law. Between, 
say, Piedmont and Calabria there is a gulf fixed that repre- 
sents at least some five centuries of culture. One of the few 
who have written such regional tales is the Sardinian, 

Grazia Deledda. In her tales and novels the 
Grazia Deledda. protagonist, so to speak, is her native isle 

with its strange, half-savage population, 
speaking a weird dialect, a mixture of Spanish, Latin, and 
Italian, a country where the vendetta and brigandage still 
flourish, and where only 80 per cent, of the inhabitants can 
read or write. There is a rugged touch, an acrid rural savour 
about her work that perhaps constitutes its attraction for 
our jaded palates, for it must in all honesty be admitted 
that apart from the novelty and curious attractiveness of the 
milieu as works of narrative art, the merit of G. Deledda's 
books is not of the first order. It is, therefore, the more to 

3— (2395) 



58 Italy of the Italians 

be deplored that since her marriage with an Italian bureaucrat 
and her settlement in Rome she should have abandoned her 
own lines and have attempted to write a novel dealing with 
a world of which she has not sufficient knowledge. It is to 
be hoped that she will recognise her error and return in 
thought to her attractive and little-known rocky island and 
give the world another book such as " Anime Oneste," pictur- 
ing the quiet family life of a petty burgher in Sardinia, or one 
like " Elias Portolu," in which the struggles between love 
and a religious vocation in a passionate, strong peasant 
nature is depicted with real force. Very wisely G. Deledda 
does not carry the use of dialect to extremes ; her books are 
therefore readable for foreigners. 

An author whom foreigners can also read with ease, as his 

style is limpid and he avoids the archaisms of the 

D'Annunzian school, is Salvatore Farina, 

Salvatore ^j^q Yias, perhaps a little incongruously, been 
called the Italian Dickens. Farina's books 
are always pure in theme and intention, he exalts family life 
and honest work, he possesses a gentle humour and a genial 
kindliness, and when he instructs and admonishes he does 
not do so in a pedagogic spirit. His book " Mio Figlio," the 
life-story of a youth from babyhood to manhood, is a gem 
in its special line, and is also interesting and instructive for 
the side-lights it casts upon the course of daily life led by 
middle-class Italian families of the north. 

Of a different type is Gerolamo Rovetta, whose romances, 

besides the usual social themes modelled on French examples, 

are incisive indictments of the course of 

(^rolamo public events in Italy. The colours are laid 
on with a heavy hand, and we hope that much 
is an exaggeration. Still, such works cannot but be helpful 
to a young nation. Of these books the most notable is 
" Barconda " and " Mater Dolorosa." He has also written 
some stirring plays dealing with Italian history during the 
time of the Austrian occupation. 



Literature 59 

A lively dialogue and rapid action distinguishes the works 
of Francesco de Roberto, who would be noteworthy could he 

liberate himself from the themes of illicit 
d^^R^b^^T ^°^^* ^^ ^^ strange that while in other 

European countries the fact that the passion 
of love does not form the only element of romance and motive 
force of action, indeed in the life of man is growing to be more 
and more incidental and of passing moment, Italian writers 
are still more or less hide-bound in this convention. They 
do not take into account the vast extension of the sphere 
of human interests. It is but fair, perhaps, to add that in 
Italy, where as yet political, social and philanthropic life 
does not play the preponderating part it does in England, 
these questions and problems assume disproportionate 
proportions. But it is for these reasons that, with the 
exceptions noted, Italian novels do not present great attrac- 
tions for foreign readers. They give them little that is new 
or original. The local novel, the novel of manners, is certainly 
not yet acclimatized in Italy. It would almost seem as if 
the writing of long and carefully-thought-out romances, as 
distinguished from short tales, in which in the past they 
so excelled, was alien to the genius of the Italian people. 
This monotonous restriction of theme to a single passion is 
certainly to be regretted. Perhaps it is a Latin failing. It 
has been well pointed out that the English novel lives 
by character, the French by situation. 

This accusation might sound severe were it not so amply 
compensated for in the domain of poetry and the drama. 

Here the Italians are strong and original, and 
Novelists here, curiously enough, where one would 

most expect it, love is not the predominant 
theme. Italy has living poets who do not sing of love, and 
dramatists who have comprehended the dramatic staleness 
of the theme. Indeed, to return for a while to the poets, 
it is hard to know which to speak of and which we can afford 
to omit. Their work almost without exception has the merit 



60 Italy of the Italians 

of being individual and expressive of the personality of the 
writer. To those who can read Itahan a volume by Eugenia 
Levi, " I Nostri Poeti Viventi," is to be highly commended ; 
for those who cannot, a volume entitled " Italian Lyrists of 
To-day," by G. A. Greene. 

In modern Italy, in contradistinction to other lands, 
literature can show no dominant school or tendency. Every 
writer has his own artistic ideal and promulgates it without 
fear. The various aspects of literary art are, therefore, 
represented by the various writers. Beside the best-known 
men there stand a whole array of really excellent poets. It 
has been contended that man liberates himself intellectually 
by either dreaming of vice or of virtue, and by rendering real 
to himself the one or the other. Foremost among those 
attracted by a dream of vice, but who nevertheless have 

given a new impetus to Italian literature, 
st^'^h'tf stands Olindo Guerrini, better known by his 

pseudonym of Lorenzo Stecchetti. He pos- 
sesses a spontaneous poetic vein and a delicacy of workman- 
ship. He might have become a great singer despite his 
exaggerated cynicism and his Bohemian pose, had he not 
disgusted the public by audacious immoralities. Still, his 
" La Nuova Polemica " and " Postuma " will live, for they 
contain poems that are masterpieces in their lines, even 
though they are scarcely adapted for family reading. The 
instant attention that the first volume, " Postuma," met with, 
was in part, but only in part, due to a literary trick. Guerrini 
pretended that these poems, which he published in 1877, 
were scattered verse left by a dead cousin who desired as his 
last request that his works might see the light. The em- 
bittered literary controversy they provoked was remarkable 
even in a land where such academic discussions are conducted 
with fierce ardour. And so, too, was their influence. His 
followers and imitators were legion, some by no means of 
despicable merit. 
As opposed to Stecchetti, as a man whose ideal is virtue 



Literature 61 

rather than vice, stands Antonio Fogazzaro, the leader of a 

spiritual reaction. To judge him aright it 

Ideals of must be remembered that he is not only a 

Fogazzaro. P^^^ ^^^ ^ novelist, but that he has evolved 

for himself a system of religious, metaphysical, 
aesthetic and political ideas and ideals. He is so fervently 
Catholic as to believe in Papal infallibility : yet at the same 
time he is animated by a sincere desire to conciliate confhcting 
creeds and social aims. Thus, he holds that the Darwinian 
theories can be used for the conciliation of faith with science. 
While not opposed to the natural expression of passion, he 
endeavours to keep sensuality in check and by idealising 
emotion to bring it closer to his conception of spiritual life. 
In politics he holds with the Christian Democrats : he desires 
to see the Church animated by a patriotism that should unite 
the wealthier classes with the poorer. Aesthetically, he holds 
that art should tend towards ethics, like Ruskin, and is 
opposed to art for arts' own sake. He has been called a 
" Paladin of the spirit." Certainly the spirit that animates 
him is scarcely one that the Italian character comprehends 
or loves. It is too Northern and mystic for their clear-cut 
logical intelligences, which incline little to dreaming. 

The first of his books to attract notice was " Malombra," 
a tale in which spiritualism played a large part, an entirely 

new note at the time in Italian literature. 
^*^* d D tv^* ^^ ^^ written half in a credulous, half in a 

medical spirit, and was the first word that 
penetrated across the Alps of that Theosophic and occult 
propaganda which is now finding a few followers in the 
Peninsula. It was succeeded by " Daniele Cortis," designed 
to deal with the writer's views concerning conflicts between 
love and duty, which for the first time in modern Italian 
literature upheld the doctrine that, despite the Papal veto, a 
man could be a good Catholic and serve his country in the 
Chamber. In " Piccolo Mondo Moderno " this same thesis 
of love versus duty recurs under a different name and changed 



62 Italy of the Italians 

social conditions. The relations between the lovers is some- 
what amusingly summed up in a scene where the woman puts 
up her mouth to be kissed but at the same time prudently 
keeps her finger on the button of the electric bell. This novel 
besides being a story, is also something of a tractate on 
marriage and the relations of the sexes as regarded by Theol- 
ogy, a form of romance not much liked in Italy, where thesis 
novels and sermonizing romances are but scantily appreciated. 
It would not be possible to imagine an Italian " Robert 
Elsmere " or " John Inglesant." The Italian likes his 
pleasures pure and unmixed, and the intrusion of theological 
speculations and ethical discussions affords him little pleasure. 
"II Mistero del Poeta" was much too nebulous and senti- 
mental for Italian taste, but pleased greatly when published 
in German. Indeed, it reads rather like a German tale for 
young ladies. Fogazzaro's strongest work is unquestionably 
his " Piccolo Mondo Antico." Finely con- 
Fogazzaro's ceived and developed is the contrast between 
" husband and wife, she a woman devoid of 
faith, but of high moral force, and endowed with a great 
sentiment of justice ; he a fervent believer, but impressionable 
and weak. The action is laid during the wars of Italy's 
political resurrection, which permits of some fine descriptions 
of scenery. Misfortune and evil persecute the couple, Franco 
and Luisa, bringing into ever sharper relief the contrasts 
of their fundamental Ego. When their only little girl dies, 
drowned almost before their eyes, this sorrow proves the 
touchstone of their respective souls. Luisa, the strong, loses 
all vigour of character and becomes almost demented, while 
Franco shows an energy which none believed him to possess. 
In Franco is symbolized the type of the believer, generally 
weak, but who in supreme moments extracts energy from his 
faith. " Piccolo Mondo Antico " has some affinities with 
Manzoni's famous " Promessi Sposi." Here, too, the essential 
essence of justice and of rebellion is placed in juxtaposition. 
In this novel Fogazzaro shows, as elsewhere too, that he 



Literature 63 

possesses a gently comic vein, thus often creating situations 
of exquisite humour. His latest work " II Santo," a sequel 
to " Piccolo Mondo Maderno," has drawn down upon him 
the condemnation of the Church of Rome, which has placed 
the book upon the Index. Fogazzaro in this novel deals 
at great length with current ecclesiastical problems, advo- 
cating a change and purification of methods. He has also 
once more emphasized, what he holds to be a crying need 
for Italy, namely that the civil and ecclesiastical authorities 
should no longer stand in antagonistic attitudes towards 
each other, but should work in harmony for the common 
welfare. In his poems, as in his prose works, he is 
the bard of hope and faith. " Miranda " is a romance in 
verse, but he has also written simple lyrics, republished as 
a collection, poems in which form on which Italians lay so 
much stress, is perhaps a little neglected, but which are 
dominated by a delicacy of touch and sentiment and also by 
a love of Nature, in a Northern rather than a Southern sense, 
that is to say, a manner of treating Nature subjectively rather 
than objectively. He is a profound believer, and Nature 
is both vivified and made mystical to him by its ever-present 
suggestion of an unknown influence above and outside her. 
Indeed, Fogazzaro is a north Italian, and this makes itself 
felt in all he writes. His home is near to those Italian lakes 
he loves so well and of which he writes so much, and his ideals 
are northern rather than southern. For in Italy, owing to 
its geographical conformation this regionalism is a factor that 
has to be reckoned with in all manifestations of intellectual life. 
To turn from the mystical Fogazzaro to the realist Giovanni 
Verga is to pass from a dim religious twilight to the fierce 

glory of a Southern sun. Verga runs a rich 
Giovanni Verga. kaleidoscope of brilliant colours before our 

eyes. The subject matter of his earlier novels 
is trivial, and had he only written these he would not have 
attained to his present high position. They deal with the 
spasms of sensual love in conflict with social conditions. His 



64 Italy of the Italians 

heroines are all lascivious, fantastic creatures of insatiable 
desire, and the men who love them are of the hot-blooded 
Southern temperament. In this period of Verga's develop- 
ment he was subjected to the influence of the French. His 
own art was not yet ripe, although he was already an expert in 
rendering all the varied aspects of passion. In 1882 he took 
a higher flight. Realism was claiming him for its own : and 
with this change begins the best period of his art. But his 
realism is different from that of Zola or Maupassant. He 
is one of those in whom realism is a merit, since he employed 
it to present the vivid impressions made by his native Sicily. 
With the fidelity of a dispassionate observer, and the skill 
of a rare artist, he brings before us the men and women 
of that exquisite but unhappy island, still suffering from the 
results of centuries of mis-rule, and unrolls a series of tragic 
or piteous tales of long-nurtured or sudden love passions, 
of love, of ferocity, of vengeance, of struggles and contests 

of every kind. These tales, " Vita dei 
SicminLife Campi " and " Novelle Rusticana," dealing 

with the manners and humours of Sicilian 
existsnce, told with brevity, with illuminating lightning 
flashes of insight, will survive as valuable documents for the 
social history of Sicily even after the conditions they depict 
have yielded to progress. Each is a little masterpiece in its 
own line and one, " Cavalleria Rusticana," is familiar all the 
world over because of its musical setting by Pietro Mascagni. 
These Sicilian peasant tales form an interesting contrast to 
George Sand's idyllic pictures of the life of the Berri rustics. 
Nor did Verga rest content to deal with his native compatriots 
in such comparatively brief compass. He also began a 
sequence of romances that were to treat in complexity of the 
local conditions. " I Vinti " was to be the comprehensive 
title of a series, planned on the lines of the " Rougon 
Macquart." It was to deal with the weak who had fallen by 
life's wayside, men who had lost courage, who bowed their 
heads passively and fatalistically. Its central thesis is that 




Photo by 



Giacomo Bivgi, Florence 



MATILDE SERAO 



Literature 65 

mankind is not divided into the traditional classes but only 
into victors and vanquished, that all must either be hammer 
or anvil. This idea is not new in literature, but it has not 
been treated quite in Verga's manner and certainly not in 
Verga's milieu. The first of the series was " Malavoglia," 
narrating the misfortunes pursuing a family of poor fishermen. 
It was followed by " Mastro Don Gesualdo," a vigorous 
picture of the new bourgeoisie that is arising in Sicily, that 
classic land of nobles and peasants, where until recently there 
was no middle-class. It traces the social ascent of a man 
of the people and the decadence of a noble house, who had 
become his victims. Both novels are penetrated with a 
potent spirit of justice, and are so really remarkable that it 
is deeply to be deplored that they met with so little financial 
success, that the author abandoned their continuation and 
returned instead to the more profitable but less valuable 
descriptions of the Milanese fashionable 
Milanese Tales, world to live amid which he has deserted the 
pyramidal shadow of his native Etna. But 
whether writing these less characteristic tales, or those treating 
of the Golden Isle, Verga is ever a realist whose realism has 
a healthy character. His human beings are sympathetically 
presented, even when they are miserable or vile. We feel 
he does not despair of his fellow men, that misery and 
oppression cannot and will not for ever be their portion. 

Yet another follower of the realist school and far more 
influenced by French examples is Matilde Serao, a Greek by 
birth and maternal ancestry, a Neapolitan on 
Matilde Serao. the paternal side and by residence and educa- 
tion. Her father lived by his wits, chiefly 
as a journeyman journalist, and hence the surroundings amid 
which her youth were passed acquainted her with much 
misery, with many sorry expedients, with the moral and social 
atmosphere of the Neapolitan lower middle class and of the 
populace that crowds in its narrow, fetid alleys. Endowed 
with keen powers of observation and a quick, limpid and living 



66 Italy of the Italians 

intelligence, she understands how to transcribe with precision 
and freshness the sentiments and impressions provoked by 
her circumstances. Full of tender indulgence towards the 
unfortunate, she sympathises with their sufferings ; above 
all she has a profound comprehension of the Italian woman, 
especially of the southern woman, with her quick response 
to all manifestations of love. Thus her art reflects the true 
Neapolitan environment, which is a strange compound of 
transports and sentiment. In her descriptive parts she is 
minute to a fault but also so true and graphic that in her case 
prolixity becomes almost a virtue. 

Her career commenced in a newspaper office, where she 
revealed her rare powers by writing short sketches of Neapol- 
itan life. They were followed by "II Romanzo delle 
FanciuUe," in which were exposed all the petty but none the 
less poignant life-dramas of a whole succession of girls of 

different social classes. Rather of the same 
"Fantasia." character are the longer novels, " Fantasia" 

and " Cuore Infermo." The former is a story 
of that pathological nature beloved by a certain section of the 
modern school. Here we have to do with one of those nervous, 
hysterical, sentimental, and yet cold-blooded creatures, 
which to our shame be it spoken, are a type of our age and a 
special outcome of our civilization. Lucia, the heroine, is 
closely related to Madame Bovary, with whom she shares 
both religious ecstasy and moral weakness. Like Madame 
Bovary, she is a mistress in the art of posing to herself and the 
world, and lets herself be misled by her own fantasies. In 
short, she is a person whose responsibility for her actions 
we should be almost inclined to question. The action is 
laid in a Neapolitan convent-school, which gives the author 
an opportunity of showing up some of the worst sides of the 
Church educational system. The action, as it develops, 
could perhaps have occurred only in the hot-blooded South, 
but it is no reproach to the writer to say this, for it proves 
how thoroughly she understands the temperament of her own 



Literature 67 

people. It is not the least of Matilde Serao's merits that she 
is devoid of prejudices, and that she treats each psychological 
problem as it presents itself from an entirely im.partial stand- 
point. On the other hand, she never defends immorality. 
On the contrary, she plainly demonstrates the errors into 
which man falls when he strays from the straight paths of 
virtue. Hence her tales are more efficacious than many a 
sermon, and far better than the purposely moral tale in which 
the reader is ever aware of the uplifted forefinger of the 
Mentor. That her processes of analysis of the human soul 

are almost microscopic in their minuteness 
"Cuore^ she has shown also in " Cuore Infermo." 

The book lays bare before us a living, palpitat- 
ing human heart, a heart that is ill morally and physically, 
and the kernel of the story is flavoured by the combats and 
counter-combats of this heart in its physical and psychical 
aspects, in which the emotions of the one are fatal to the 
well-being of the other, and one has ultimately of necessity to 
destroy the other. In the end love conquers prudence with 
the result that the heroine, who fought against all deeper 
feelings and emotions, in order to preserve her physical heart 
intact, succumbs to her hereditary malady of heart-disease 
after some brief weeks of wedded happiness. This somewhat 
pathological narrative is related as a tense psychological 
study, a delicate and powerful piece of workmanship, which 
curiously enough outside of Italy has not met with the full 
recognition it deserves, when less valuable romances by the 
same writer have met with the honour of translation into 
almost every civilized language. The story is saved from 
being too painful by the most exquisite subtlety and delicacy 
of handling. In " La Conquista di Roma " the writer graphic- 
ally makes manifest the curious fascination that a huge city 

exercises. A man who has lived in the 

„^,.^^°V^,°! distant wilds of the Basilicata, and is full of 
Political Life. . , , . , , ^^ , 

ardent ideals, is elected Deputy and goes up 

to the capital in the confidence that he will become a great 



68 Italy of the Italians 

moral force in the Chamber, without taking into account 
that potent defensive weapon of indifference, which guards 
every metropolis against similar ambitions. All too soon 
he is disillusioned, and an unfortunate love-affair combined 
with his political self-deception routs him entirely ; saddened 
and disheartened he hands in his resignation and returns to 
vegetate in his native province. Had the element of illicit 
love been omitted, and his disillusionment been made to spring 
solely from his political fiasco, the book would have been 
more convincing ; for, as it is, we may incline to think that 
had he not been led away by his passions, his earnest patriot- 
ism might have obtained for him a place, even if not so high 
a place as his ambition dreamed. But had this element of 
love, and especially illicit love, been omitted, it would not 
have been a novel by Matilde Serao, or, for the matter of 
that, an Italian novel, for the sensuous and sensual element 
exerts what is, to Northern ideas, an unduly preponderating 
part in Italian life and thought. In yet another book, 
" La Vita di Riccardo Joanna," is demonstrated the terrible 
Tale f attraction exerted by journalism and the 
Journalism and tumultuous vari-coloured and fatiguing life 
the Lottery led by those who exercise this profession, 
°° ^' especially in Italy, where the Fourth Estate 
is heavily worked, poorly remunerated, and held in small 
social esteem. In "II Paese di Cucagna " Matilde Serao 
treats of the Lotto and all that terrible Government gambling 
institution means for Italy, and above all for Naples and the 
poorer South. We see and hear the dense multitude that 
assembles every Saturday at two o'clock before the lottery 
booths, where the numbers drawn are posted up, rejoicing, 
imprecating, blaspheming, for or against their fate, caressing 
or cursing the magicians or witch doctors who have suggested 
to them good or bad numbers on which to play and stake their 
little all. It is this book which Paul Bourget caused his 
wife to translate, himself writing an introduction for the 
French public. He praises the writer's wonderful power of 



Literature 69 

reproducing the very atmosphere that envelopes her characters, 
so that some of her pages can be placed beside those of that 
master of this art, the Russian Dostojewsky. In lauding her 
splendid capacity of causing masses to live in her pages he 
compares certain portions to the closely-packed multitudes 
seen in the frescoes by the fifteenth-century masters, such as 
Ghirland9.jo and Benozzo Gozzoli. 

Matilde Serao is so fertile that it is not possible in our 
limits to deal with all her books. Recently she deviated 

somewhat from naturalism, perchance due to 
A Departure Fogazzaro's influence, and has produced 
Naturalism, works in which a hybrid and rather maudlin 

mysticism predominates. To this departure 
we owe " II Paese di Gesu," the record of a visit paid to 
Palestine in fulfilment of a vow made to the Madonna, and 
a few works of like import and small value. But this phase 
has not proved of long duration, for Matilde Serao has recently 
published a novel of the old type, " Suor Giovanna della 
Croce," whose purpose is to arouse sympathy for the nuns 
whom the suppression of convents has thrown helpless onto 
the world. But Matilde Serao is remarkable in yet another 

respect: she is not only a first-class journalist, 
A Brilliant ^^^ ^-^e is the first and only woman in Italy 

who has founded and runs successfully a daily 
political paper. This paper, " II Mattino," is published at 
Naples, and as a rule supports the Government in power. 
Among women writers Matilde Serao undoubtedly takes the 
first place, and she alone has conquered the prejudice felt 
by the Italian public against female writers. Special and 
local reasons account for this prejudice, which is being 
slowly overcome as women become better educated and give 
proof of power, but which will fight hard, and perchance 
never entirely die out in a land where woman is looked upon 
as a man's toy, and has few social and civil rights. For these 
causes, too, there is no literature, properly so-called, for young 
girls. Only sickly, feeble, falsely sentimental rubbish is 



70 Italy of the Italians 

penned for their perusal. Literature for children is also a 
strangely neglected branch. This explains the great success 
achieved by De Amicis' "Cuore," a book for boys about boys, 
which most healthy-minded Anglo-Saxon lads would, we fear, 
dismiss with the term " Twaddle." Indeed, to a Northern 

mind it is not easy to comprehend the great 
de AirUds success that Edmondo de Amicis has achieved. 

A young officer of barely 20 when the new 
Italian State was in course of formation, it was natural 
that he should have become enamoured of the Army, the 
symbol and hope of the nation that was taking birth. Hence 
his first productions dealt with this theme and achieved 
instant success. Already in these first books, " Vita Militare," 
" Ricordi," and " Novelle," was manifest De Amicis' tendency 
to teach and preach. They aimed at showing that the Army 
and the nation should be united and that the heart of man is 
not sterilized by discipline. In these as in all his subsequent 
books his facility of speech often degenerated into prolixity. 
Clever and graphic descriptions are their main characteristics. 
From military tales De Amicis turned to travels, and here 
again his powers of minute obseryation stood him in good 
stead, but his observation rarely penetrates the surface, he 
does not illuminate, he does not make us understand the 
deeper meaning of a people and a landscape. He is essentially 
a delineator of mediocre intelligence whose defects are hidden 
by an elegant, easy style. In a book two volumes in length, 
entitled " Gli Amici," he unrolls a series of various types of 
friends, moralizing concerning them. This same tendency to 
over-minute description of minutiae pervades " II Romanzo 
di un Maestro," in which the difficulties of an elementary 
schoolmaster's life in Italian hamlets are presented with much 
truth. In " Sull' Oceano," too, he moralizes concerning the 
increase of Italian emigration, but without touching the real, 
deeper causes that provoke this exodus, and without entering 
upon the politico-economic questions that must be envisaged 
to treat adequately of this terrible social sore. In 1891 



Literature 71 

De Amicis, who had hitherto been a moderate Liberal, sud- 
denly became a convert to Socialism, and thereupon wrote 
a number of pamphlets to propagate his new creed. But 
here, too, all his reasoning was superficial and he dealt with 
none of the scientific problems that Socialism presents. To 
this period belongs " La Carrozza di Tutti," a diary of twelve 
months' study of men and women met daily in an omnibus. 
His last book, like all his works, has gone into many editions, 
a sign that he hits the taste of a large section of his countrymen. 
It is called " L'Idioma Gentile." In it he advocates, and 
rightly, that the Italians should cultivate their lovely language 
with greater care and should not allow it to become defaced 
with Gallicisms and provincialisms. But here again where 
his theme is good, his method of treatment is intolerably 
diffuse. Briefly, De Amicis is an intellectual bourgeois, with 
all the merits and the defects of that social class. 

A word must still be said of the woman singer whose sudden 

advent on the lyrical horizon created a stir that re-echoed 

even outside the confines of Italy. Ada 

^Ad ^"n ^^ °^ Negri, a little elementary school teacher in 
a tiny North Italian mountain hamlet, 
surprised the world by her volume " Fatality," in which she 
sings with simple spontaneity of the sorrows and miseries 
of the workers of the soil and the factory hands. The metres 
are not always perfect, the fundamental ideas not new, but 
an accent of sincerity, of deep pathos, of sympathetic com- 
prehension, pervades each poem. The same applies to her 
second volume, " Tempeste," in which the grinding, squalid 
lives of the poor were presented with incisive force. Verses 
written under such peculiar circumstances aroused interest 
for their author. She was transferred to a better-paying 
city school, and finally married a rich factory-owner, and was 
able to put her benevolent theories into practice. For a long 
while after her marriage her Muse was silent. Finally, 
however, she put forth a new volume called " Maternita," 
in which the joys and sorrows of motherhood are treated of 



72 Italy of the Italians 

with a woman's deep intuition and delicate hand. Whether 
she will do much more, the future alone can show. Ada 
Negri's lyre has but few strings, but those it'has ring true and 
command attention. 

Another of the younger writers of whom on his first appear- 
ance on the literary horizon John Addington Symonds 
prophesied great things, is E. A. Butti. His 
B °tt "^ novels,, few in number, deal with psychological 
problems, but what renders him chiefly 
interesting is the fact that he is in the vanguard of that 
idealistic movement of which the new century is witnessing 
an inception in Italy, and which it is to be hoped will prove 
the death-knell of that school of uncleanness and lubricity 
of which D'Annunzio is the leader. Indeed were I asked 
to define in a sentence the trend of the latest thought in Italy, 
I should say that it is marked by a breath of that new Idealism 
that is making itself felt more or less in the literatures of all 
European countries. And these new ideals are manifesting 
themselves not only in letters but in Art, in Science, and in Life. 

E. A. Butti is still not so widely known as he deserves to 
be, yet every new work from his pen arouses the keenest 
discussion, a fact that in itself proves that he is alive and 
touches life at its most vital point. An indomitable wrestler, 
a convinced believer, he advances his views with the un- 
daunted conviction of an Apostle, and slowly but surely he 
is gaining a following. Every new work of his is a war-cry 
which always arouses respect even if it does not win universal 
applause. His first novel, " L'Autome," was already in the 
nature of a challenge. Its hero is one of those dilettante of 
life and art of which our era furnishes but too many examples, 
a neurotic whose actions are determined rather by his nervous 
impulses than by his reason or his principles. It was followed 
by " L'Anima," and in the interval of writing the two books 
it is evident that the author has wakened to the fact that all 
on this earth cannot be explained by science and materialism. 
The very title. The Soul, proves this. The hero is a scientist 



Literature 73 

and a materialist by conviction. A terrible illness forces him 
to revise his creed. He says "It is a narrow, dark prison 
without a door of egress to which science would fain confine 
us. It is impossible it should content Mankind, it is im- 
possible that Man should struggle, suffer and sacrifice himself 
in the mere expectation of Death, . . . Truth, absolute 
Truth, begins precisely where our wisdom ends." The 
spiritual evolution of a thinker spirit who loses his faith in 
Matter and finds that Positivism is a limited and superficial 
theory, that the world cannot begin and end at the confines 
of human experience, is more than a work of art ; it is a sign 
of the times. The succeeding novel, " L'Incantesimo," is a 
demonstration of those contrasts and contradictions so often 
seen in the lives of superior men. After this book Butti 
turned his attention to the stage and in the section that treats 
of the theatre we shall meet with him again. 

Many and many names of excellent writers of verse and 

prose spring to my memory, but this chapter is not intended 

to be all-embracing. It only wishes to furnish 

Bjography gome idea of the character and trend of 

and History. • . , 

modern Italian literary thought. Of critical 

studies, of biographies, of histories there is no lack, but few 
if any of these books can be said to attain to the dignity 
of pure literature, few if any are of that enduring type that 
would cause them to be read for their own sake apart from 
their themes. It is a curious fact, that hardly seems to fit 
in with the Italian temperament, that the more serious 
writers develop a pedantry of style and treatment such as 
we should rather look for among the learned Germans than 
among the more light-hearted and artistic: Italians. To 
exiguous details of their national story vast tomes are dedica- 
ted. Undue stress is laid upon matters of secondary import- 
ance, there is none of that light handling and comprehensive 
generalization peculiar to the French. They are apt to 
look at matters too much in detail and not enough in the 
mass. They confound the secondary with the essential, 

6— (2395) 



74 Italy of the Italians 

and lack individuality of touch and thought. Hence these 
products belong rather to the category of books of reference. 
Their authors are diligent, painstaking, sensible, but as a 
rule their power of synthesis is slender and their work will 
live rather as furnishing material for other craftsmen than 
for its own intrinsic merits. In all branches of social life 
organization and generalization are weak points with the 
Italians. It is curious to note how this defect makes itself 
felt also in those literary departments in which great and 
permanent work might be achieved. An exception to this 
censure is to be met with in the volume dealing with " Young 
Europe," written by the brilliant young criminal anthropolo- 
gist, Guglielmo Ferrero, who is also now issuing a History 
of Rome (now being translated into English), where a notable 
departure is made from conventional historic methods. 

In literature for the young, Italy lags far behind and cannot 
compare with England or America or Germany. It would 

almost seem as though the Latin mind could 
^° Youn"^ *^® not, after maturity, regain its childish 

simplicity, for in France and Spain, too, 
children's literature is feebly represented. The few books 
that do exist in Italian are of a sickly sentimentality or assume 
a didactic character. " Pinocchio," by C. Collodi, and 
delightfully illustrated by C. Mazzanti (translated into 
English under the title " The Story of a Puppet ") stands 
almost alone as a child classic. We find here none of those 
tales that inculcate a love of animals, such as are so common 
in England, if we except " Una famiglia di Topi," by Contessa 
Lara (Eva Cattermole Macini), herself more English than 
Italian. 

On the other hand, a branch in which Italian literature is 
strong is dialect poetry. For though Tuscan, itself once only 

a dialect until Dante consecrated it as the 
Dialect Poetry, spoken and written literary speech, is the 

official Italian of letters and life, each province 
still preserves its special methods of speech, which in some 



Literature 75 

cases are so far removed from written Italian that it is impos- 
sible not only for a foreigner but also for a native to understand 
them. Neapolitan, with its curious admixture of consonants, 
which in print almost look like Welsh ; Genoese, with its 
Spanish- Arabic forms ; Milanese with its clipped words and 
witty locutions may be given as examples. Each dialect 
seems to render the characteristics of the province in which 
it is spoken. All of them are still spoken, and not only by 
the people but by all classes of society. Many Italians have 
to learn their own language just like any foreigner and speak 
it with some hesitation, scarcely as though it were their 
mother tongue. A true artist on these lines is Cesare 
Pascarella who has narrated in a series of most witty sonnets 
in the Roman dialect the history of the discovery of America 
by Columbus. A natural gaiety and graceful satire distinguish 
the verses of Augusto Sindici, also a Roman, whose verses 
embody the legends of the Campagna. Excellent, too, are 
two Neapolitans, Salvatore di Giacomo, whose poems are 
imbued with the curious melancholy that runs through the 
Neapolitan character, and Ferdinand Russo, who, by contrast, 
shows forth their merry and witty side. In the Pisan dialect 
Renato Fucini has enshrined many of his experiences as 
school inspector, experiences that he has also told with inimit- 
able verse and good humour in his short tales of Tuscan life, 
Alfredo Testoni reflects the briskness of the Bolognese tem- 
perament, and Barbarani the heavy melancholy of Verona, 
touched already by the sombreness of the north. 

I have given a rapid, almost kaleidoscopic survey of modern 

Italian literature. Amid so much diversity there is only 

one point of unity and that is the inborn love 

Love of Form ^f ^^^ Italian writers for form and finish. It 
and rinisn. . . . 

has been said that what is not clear is not 

French : it can be added that what is not refined is not 

Italian. This tendency to artistic perfection may conceal 

some dangers, but it at least preserves Literature from that 

writing down to the taste of the mass that is so deplorable 



76 Italy of the Italians 

a feature of our democratic age. Literature in Italy seeks 
to elevate and draw its readers into serener and more classic 
spheres. It knows no slang, it tolerates no bad grammar, 
it exacts much from itself but it also demands something from 
its readers. And thus, despite all the deficiencies that have 
been pointed out, it is a power in the land and contributes to 
its mental elevation. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PAINTERS 

There are certain stock phrases with which the tourist comes 

ready armed to Italy, and one runs " There is no modern 

Italian art." The date named at which this 

Modern ^^^ came to an end, whether with the Venetian 

Tiepolo, or with Michel Angelo, depends 

upon the art critic upon whom the speaker pins his blind 

faith, whether he be called Ruskin, Morelli, or some of the 

minor lights. 

Now, this stock phrase, like most parrot utterances, is both 
absurd and incorrect. It is true that art, like all else, was at 
a low ebb during the storm and stress period of the nation's 
political resurrection, but what the people who repeat this 
sentence ad nauseam forget is that this was thirty odd years, 
that is, a whole generation ago, and that in the meanwhile 
Italians have had time to learn and to reassert themselves 
in the domain in which they once held undisputed sway. 

Of course, modem Italian art has nothing in common with 
the ancients. That must at once be realized and understood. 
On the other hand, in what other land is this the case ? Do 
we not all adapt ourselves to the demands and requirements 
of our time. Why, therefore, ask from Italians that which 
would be an anachronism and an absurdity ? Is it not rather 
to their credit that they have striven to strike out fresh path- 
ways and do not attempt to walk in the footsteps of their 
glorious ancestors ? 

Yet, once again, the tourist is unfair. 

The six International Art Exhibitions that have been held 
in Venice every other year since 1895 have admirably served 
to show the world how and where Italy stands. They have 
also been useful to the Italians as helping them to measure 



78 Italy of the Italians 

themselves against their foreign rivals with excellent and 
healthful results. 

It is true that if we judged from the local exhibitions and 

the shop windows some fifteen or twenty years ago the aspect 

of modern Italian art was discouraging. A 

\A^ntmg in school of clever painters had adopted a 
style of subject which, though taking and 
pictorial, was debased and trivial. The revels of soldiers 
and the rabble generally, the orgies of friars in the cellars of 
convents among huge tuns of wine, that made dark and mys- 
terious backgrounds, and other such devices, occupied their 
time and their often brilliant talents. The powerful realism 
which made the work of the Dutch painters in something of 
the same line of subject immortal, was wanting in the work 
of the Italians. Their soldiers, peasants, friars, and inn- 
servants were not real creatures to the manner born. They 
were rather models dressed up to represent such personages 
and wanting in the one indispensable quality of art that is 
to last, namely, reality. 

But this phase, though it still survives somewhat, since it 
has been proved to find a sale among a certain class of tourists, 
is happily on the wane, and even while it was at its height 
better things were being executed, though less ostentatiously 
and with less pecuniary success. 

And here it is necessary at once to state that the regionalism, 

the provincialism, that is so fatal an element in Italian 

politics, also exists in the realms of art ; the 

Provincialism Venetian Art Exhibitions have, indeed, rather 
Art Exhibitions, emphasized than discouraged this by assigning 
special rooms to each province for its exhibi- 
tion. This is the more regrettable because signs are not 
lacking that these distinctions are in many respects about to 
disappear and to be merged into a renovated modern Italian 
art that shall hold high its banner of idealism, proving that in 
this domain too the sons are not so wholly unworthy of their 
sires as ignorant or prejudiced critics would hjive us believe, 



The Painters 79 

For the moment, therefore, it is more convenient to follow 
the accepted divisions, the more so as undoubtedly each 
region has its characteristic local colour, that has by no 
means yet been obliterated ; though from all these, when 
fused together, there does emerge a note that may be said to 
adumbrate a national character. 

The revival of modern Italian art began at about the same 
epoch in Naples, Lombardy, and Tuscany. It was, however, 
curiously enough in Naples, still under the 
The Influence of dominion of the miserable Bourbon kings, 
^MorenL° that there arose the man who fought poor 
and single-handed against the three prime 
articles of artistic faith held in that age of political despotism, 
pedantry, servility and bigotry. Domenico Morelli has lately 
passed over to the great majority, but his influence remains. 
With one accord he will be named as the leader of the Southern 
school. He is not only the man who has given it its direction, 
but he has also modified not a little all the other Italian 
schools. His name is known through all the length and 
breadth of the Peninsula, and there are partisans for and 
against his art to whom his very name is the signal for a hot 
combat, after the manner of the Guelph and Ghibelline. But 
it is the modern spirit that has conquered. 

It is, perhaps, well here to point out at once that the 

Neapolitan school of art has at all periods held traditions 

diverse from those that obtain in the rest 

^^"^ Schoof'^^ of Italy. Probably the admixture of Greek 

blood in its population, the free life of the 

Abruzzi districts, the wild and romantic scenery of Calabria 

have conduced to this. Certainly there has always existed 

in this school much of the wild romanticism of southern brio, 

southern light-heartedness and gaiety and southern warmth 

and colour. Witnesses to the truth of this statement are 

Salvator Rosa, Luca Giordano, and Ribera, those fiery and 

audacious intelligences who placed imagination and tone 

above form. Something of this spirit survives in their 



80 Italy of the Italians 

descendants and in no place is Italian art to-day more alive 
and active than in the city of enchantment that lies beside 
the lovely island-guarded, volcano -flanked gulf. Often extrav- 
agant in its exuberant fantasy, unfinished in its creative 
impetuosity, Neapolitan art nevertheless sings, dances and 
laughs in a bacchanalian orgy of colour and pleasure, of 
fervid sunshine and perfume that accords well with its cradle 
and its surroundings. Diverse in its forms of manifestation, 
one identical note distinguishes it, namely, colour, splendid, 
true and potent. 

To these traditions Morelli proved true. Colour and light 
were his chief modes of expression and hence his works lend 

themselves ill to reproduction. He was one 
M^*^^U^ °^ of the few artists, too, who fully recognised 

that Art, in order to be truly wide and great 
must go hand in hand with literature which supplies it with 
food for thought and fancy. It was the poets, but above all 
the English Byron, who inspired the pictures of his youth. 
It was the Bible that was the inspiration of all his later and 
finest work. Italian Art, above all other, found its source 
of inspiration in the sacred writings, and its pictures were 
some of the most potent auxiliaries of religion. With the 
decline of faith there was also a decline of Art, and now 
that we have entered another era. Art finds that the new 
ideals of humanity do not lend themselves sympathetically 
to its mode of expression ; we lament, and not without reason, 
that it wanders aimlessly without ideals or thoughts. Hence 
it was Morelli who recalled Art to sacred themes, and in so 
doing he has not, like English and French painters, followed 
in the beaten track ; instead, availing himself of the researches 
of modern criticism, of enlarged historical knowledge, he has 
succeeded instead in reproducing the Bible under a new 
aspect. His is no conventional treatment, as will be readily 
understood when I say that in Italy he is regarded as the 
Renan and Strauss of sacred Art. Following in the paths 
indicated by modern exegetical literature, he has striven not 



The Painters 81 

to destroy, but to re-interpret the Gospel story in a manner 
no less poetical, no less divine, than that of his predecessors, 
but in a manner that has its roots in modern life. 

And surely it is right that artists should follow in the new 
paths opened out to them by science and history. True, 
Th^ophile Gautier lays it down as an axiom, " En Art il n'y 
a pas de progrds." Not progress perhaps, but may it not be 
possible to produce a condition as good as the old, and since 
it is the feeling of the time that calls it forth, in that respect 
better, as more fitted to our comprehension. Or would he 
establish it as our duty merely to re-copy the work already 
done, to put forth servile imitations and vapid reproductions 
of old-world feelings and conceptions ? 

As Byron was the ideal of the youth Morelli, so the Gospel 
was the ideal of the man. He searched the New Testament 
deeply, sympathetically, critically, and thought intimately 
into the times and the life of Jesus. From the day that he 
first commenced this study it was his high aspiration to 
illustrate it by his paintings, but it was some time ere he held 
himself sufficiently ripe. 

When Morelli first presented the Mother of the Redeemer 
under a human form, his picture created a vast sensation, 
not only among Art circles, but among the 
^" faithful. This Madonna, they readily saw. 

Madonna. ^^^ unlike to those of Raphael or Fra 
Bartolomeo ; she had little affinity with 
German or Byzantine Virgins, none with those of Botticelli 
and otTier great Italians. Morelli alone could claim this 
beautiful Hebrew woman, in whose veins ran warm Southern 
blood, as a direct descendant from his Madonna of the Assump- 
tion. At one blow the artist had broken down the chains of 
tradition, and this because he had followed history, not 
ecclesiastical legend ; and so his Virgin was maid again in 
lieu of a fleshless, soulless being. Here, humanised, was seen 
the Rosa Mystica of Heaven as a young, proud, loving mother, 
earthy, and yet not wholly of the earth, neither she nor her 



82 Italy of the Italians 

babe. It was divinity and humanity fused into one, and, 

at first, and even to this day, the critics have failed to follow 

Morelli's recondite fancies or do full justice to his poetical 

conception. Thus, in the " Salve Regina," the Virgin 

presses her baby to her breast and closes her eyes in very 

ecstasy of happiness. The outer world has nothing to reveal 

to her vision ; her joy is all within, and she seeks to taste it 

unimpeded by impressions from without. The idea was 

perhaps too subtle for pictorial expression, and suited alone 

for literary exposition. Indeed, Morelli not unfrequently sins 

in this respect against the laws laid down by Lessing in his 

•' Laocoon." Incapable of understanding, however, a large 

body of critics declared that the Virgin was asleep, and only 

the more delicate-souled apprehended what the artist had 

sought to express. All, however, concurred in praising the 

Child, who uprises secure and firm from the maternal embrace, 

while in His eyes flash signs of that potency, that divine 

charity and yearning which is the eternal beauty of the 

babe in Raphael's " San Sisto " Virgin, and which expresses 

here and there that this infant, more than a mere human 

child, is wrapt in thoughts that triumph above maternal 

caresses. It has been said that many of Morelli's pictures 

should be set to music rather than described. They touch 

just that borderland of the indefinite that is the domain of 

music, and which escapes under the clumsier touches of 

literature and Art. 

One of Morelli's finest as well as most characteristic works 

is the " Assumption " he has painted for the roof of the 

Royal Chapel at Naples. In this picture his 

Morelli's mode of thought and execution can be 
Assumption. ° 

admirably studied. It was no easy task to 

treat this often- treated theme, and yet now that it is finished 

it reminds us of no school, no era, no previous representation. 

Before beginning upon the canvas Morelli read through the 

dreary waste of schoolman polemics, in which was discussed 

with all gravity, much ingenuity, some erudition, great 



The Painters 83 

tediousness, and considerable length, the apparently important 

theological question, what was the colour of the dress worn 

by the Virgin on the occasion of the Assumption ? When 

interrogated why he read such dull, stupid stuff, Morelli replied 

that he found by this means the mental atmosphere he 

required to put him into the proper frame of mind to conceive 

his picture. The work, as it now stands, is very large, indeed 

the artist's largest, and the principal figures are half the size 

of life. It is interesting to note how very few colours are 

employed in the composition. This was done designedly 

by the artist, who thought thus to give his work a more 

religious character. But few though these colours are, they 

are employed with such consummate skill that they never 

become monotonous. While painting the work, Morelli 

relates that he ever strove to keep before his mind the address 

to God, attributed by the Orientalist father, St. John of 

Damascus, to Mary at the Assumption, " Meum corpus tibi 

trado non terrae : salvum fac a corruptione in quo tibi 

placuit habitare." 

Truly, Christ and the Virgin are Morelli's favourite themes, 

and he has presented them again and again under various 

forms. Mary, except in the Assumption, is 

Favourite always the mother. Of exquisite loveliness 

Themes of the . r t j j • ■ x i n j 

Painter. ^^ leelmg and design is a water-colour called 

" Da Scala d'Oro," in which the divine young 
Hebrew joyously descends the inlaid golden stairs of the 
Temple, holding on high her babe, who seems to crow with 
childish glee in the rapid movement, although his prematurely 
pensive face and his attitude of outstretched arms, adumbrat- 
ing his future instrument of martyrdom, reveals the Redeemer 
of the world. It is a long, narrow, upright picture, painted 
on a gold ground, in which great distance is produced by the 
sight of the ever-receding stairs. Here we have to do rather 
with the " Mater amabilis." 

Jesus we behold in different moments of His earthly sojourn. 
We see Him walking on the waters ; we witness His entry 



84 Italy of the Italians 

into the large square atrium where the daughter of J aims is 
laid out for dead, with the women mourners crouching around 
her ; we see Him standing under the shadow of an Eastern 
porch, in front of an open space flooded with fierce sunlight, 
bidding the woman taken in adultery depart in peace and 
sin no more, telling those that stand around and feel them- 
selves guiltless to cast the first stone. Nowhere is there the 
remotest resemblance to former treatments of these well-worn 
themes, and not only is Morelli's conception original, but it 
carries with it that force of conviction which makes us feel 
that thus, and thus only, could the scene have really occurred. 
One of his most peculiar talents is a strong intuition of 
places and types he has never seen — so strong as to amaze 
those persons who come from the countries 

Strong Intuition whence the subjects are taken. Thus, for 
of PI3.C6S siriQ 

Types. example, the picture of " Jesus tempted of 

the Devil." Here is the vast, arid, sulphur- 
ous, stony plain of Judsea as it actually exists, with nought 
but volcanic erratic blocks to break its monotony of barren- 
ness • the wilderness truly. The lurid light of the desert 
pervades the canvas, a light that can glimmer but dimly 
through the mist and dust of this dreary place, allegorising 
the sterility of the light of mere earth unillumined by higher 
influences. The background of the scene is void of anything 
living save four vultures that cower upon a distant rock 
hoping for prey. In the foreground appear the protagonists 
of the great drama, enacting the contending forces of Ahriman 
and Ormuzd, of good and evil, that still rend the world, and 
will rend it, until the last day of its existence. 

But no picture ever limned by Morelli has created the 
sensation produced by his " Temptation of St. Anthony," 

which, on its exhibition at Paris, was for 

Scenes from weeks the talk of this aesthetic town. What 
Christian . , . , . . , , , . 

History. ^^ ^° subtle, so ongmal, and so modern m 

Morelli's treatment of this by no means 
unhackneyed theme of the temptation of the founder 



The Painters 85 

of monasticism, is that the temptation arises from 
within the man's own breast, and is not brought to him from 
without. The temptations suffered by St. Anthony were the 
hallucinations of his own imagination, aroused in him by 
abstinence and privation from all the joys of the fiesh. As 
an Italian critic has well pointed out, Morelli has in a manner 
traversed the whole gamut of the history of Christianity. 
In his " Conversion of St. Paul " he reminded us how, in the 
person of this apostle, Christianity took doctrinal shape, and 
the Old Testament, the old civilization, retreated before the 
new. In " St. Anthony " we see that faith has touched the 
sublimest heights of sacrifice and is about to descend into 
prejudice. The whole range of the artist's work presents 
a reasoned series. No wonder the Neapolitan artists look 
up to him as their leader and that his influence for good and 
for evil has been potent. 

If Morelli was the first among Neapolitan artists to eman- 
cipate himself from sterile traditions of every form and kind, 
he found a follower and successor in Francesco 

The Art of Paolo Michetti, who has left him far behind 

Francesco Paolo • ,t_ . • • r. • • tj. r • j 

Michetti. ^^ "^^e strivmg after origmality of view and 

treatment. Influenced in a measure by 

Morelli, more perhaps by the Spaniard Fortuny, with his gipsy 

wildness and strangeness, Michetti is withal an artist of no 

common type whose manner and development are too personal 

and individual to be cramped into any school designation or 

marked off with any pedantic label. It is more than probable 

that his influence has not been wholly to the good upon modern 

Italian painting ; it is possible that he is rather the outcome 

of an Art arrived at maturity, an Art that loves to allow 

itself caprices and fantasies, than of a tendency that is fecund 

and robust. That he is not a good all-round artist, that he 

is a better colourist than draughtsman, that he is audacious 

at times to the point of impertinence, all this and more may 

be urged against him, but when the worst is said, there remains 

a painter whose work is hors ligne, and whom it is as impossible 



86 Italy of the Italians 

to ignore as it is impossible to withhold admiration from the 
marvellous works that emanate from his brain and brush. 

It is only a " paradisaical pandemonium," as an Italian 

writer aptly calls Naples, that could produce a genius so 

bizarre, so complex and apparently incoherent. 

His Complex g^ j-j^,]^^ g^ facile, and so strange. For some 

years the name of Michetti sounded to Italian 

ears as the expression of everything that is new, unexpected, 

hair-brained, and extravagant. His name is synonymous 

with brilliant stuffs and dazzling flesh tints, conjoined to 

shadows of dark cobalt ; of clashing tones designedly sought 

out ; of delicious child faces patiently caressed by a cunning 

brush ; of full-bodied women inundated in an atmosphere 

of sun and heat ; of landscapes created in the brain of the 

artist, where trees cast no shade, or shades are cast by trees 

outside the canvas ; in short, synonymous for Tiepolesque 

hardihood and Japanese ingenuity ; for strange and unusual 

frames ; for a carnival of comic personages ; for peasant 

idyls scorched by a Southern sun ; all this pervaded by a 

youthful freshness of power, an^ artistic good-humour that 

tells of an artist unburdened by thought, but rich in strength 

and creative ability. It has been said that most artists 

have their eyes in their brain ; of Michetti it might be said 

that he has his brain in his eyes. 

Francesco Paolo Michetti was born in 1851 at Chieti, in the 

Abruzzi Mountains, that Italian district which to this day the 

newer civilization has not touched, where 

^'^? f^-^u^S^^ Catholicism has but veneered the ancient 
of Michetti. . 

paganism, where progress is a word of 
unknown meaning, and personal liberty unesteemed. His 
art education was received at Naples, but he also travelled, 
visiting Paris and even London — though that nebulous city 
could not hold for long an artist to whom sunshine, not to say 
daylight, is the first requisite. So at last he returned to his 
native Abruzzi, where he resides to this day, and here he 
painted and paints the strangely curious works inspired by 



The Painters 87 

the life of the Abruzzi peasants, his art, like their lives, 
dividing itself between church festivals and the free out-door 
existence of the woods and fields. On this account his pictures 
are interesting and valuable as human documents. His 
secular scenes should be supplemented by the foreign spectator 
with the works of his compatriot and ardent admirer, the 
writer, Gabriele D'Annunzio. They would then better 
comprehend his Abruzzi pastorals in which there pulsates 
all the untutored, sensuous, fiery, passionate blood of these 
Southerners. What a tragedy in colour is, for example, 
" La Figlia di Jorio," which inspired D'Annunzio's play 
of the same name ; the peasant maiden who slinks along with 
downcast eyes and shame-faced attitude upon the field-path 
that is skirted by idling, reclining peasants, who jeer and gibe 
at her as she goes by ! 

The picture that revealed the full strength of his powers, 
and which made his fame, was the " Corpus Domini Procession 

at Chieti," exhibited in the Naples Exhibition 
^Pktufi"*^ in 1876. The work roused an indescribable 

sensation. It burst upon the Art world like 
an effect of fireworks ; it attracted and amazed at the same 
time. Here was a creation both original and potent, that 
could be placed in no category as yet known, either for idea 
or treatment, for the picture is painted in oil, water-colour, 
and guazzo. It was certainly in no wise academic ; it might 
be classed as impressionist — but even here Michetti follows 
no school, but gives his individual impression solely. Now 
that out-door religious demonstrations are forbidden in the 
towns of Italy, only those who have had the good fortune to 
spend early summer in the country districts may have seen 
one of the impressive and picturesque Corpus Domini pro- 
cessions — processions concerning whose deeper meaning and 
purpose not even the most devout Catholic can furnish an 
explanation. Michetti's picture, in which the ripe colour, 
the full voluptuousness of the South has free play, furnishes 
some clue perchance to the query. It is just as pagan as 



88 Italy of the Italians 

anything we could hope to see by putting on Hans Andersen's 
" Goloshes of Happiness," wishing ourselves back into the 
heyday of Greek life, and assisting at one of the national 
festivals. Here in the Abruzzi we are almost in Magna Graecia, 
and the paganism of those days can scarcely be said to be 
effaced. The astuteness of the Catholic Church has merely 
laid a varnish over ancient ceremonies by giving a different 
name to external ordinances that, to all intents and purposes, 
are the same as those practised some two thousand years ago, 
when man was younger and the world more gay. 

After the great and widespread success Michetti had 
achieved with his large " Corpus Domini " picture, he con- 
tinued to work with renewed fervour and zeal, 
'^^^M* h^tt^ °^ throwing into his labour all his juvenile 
strength, all the impetuousness of his Southern 
nature. He burned with the desire to produce, ever to 
produce, to fix on canvas the number and variety of impres- 
sions of sea, sky, air, and earth, which were daily brought 
before his vision at his beauteous Italian home, that in- 
exhaustible fount of artistic loveliness. Working in such hot 
haste, in a manner so careless, more anxious to preserve an 
impression than to complete a picture, it is quite natural that 
his ardour and fantasy at times overcame his judgment, and 
caused him to put forth now and again works that, for auda- 
city and wilfulness, display the slipshod draughtsmanship 
of the most oulre school of impressionism. All these tenden- 
cies, however, in the case of Michetti, were combined with 
a truer sense of beauty, a richer faculty for colour, than falls 
to the lot of most impressionists, who seem to see nothing 
but dirty greys and greens in nature and Art. Michetti's 
impressionist pictures rather resemble the chef d'oeuvre of 
which Balzac speaks, which having mounted to the brain of 
the artist who created it, in the end shipwrecks him in the 
undecipherable — a shipwreck from which he only saves a foot 
most admirably painted, as token of what the whole figure 
had been before the intoxication of the artist with his own 



The Painters 89 

work had overturned his artistic and critical faculty. But, 
happily, caprice, though it is the guiding star of this Southern 
nature, does not often lead him into these baroque vagaries. 
Another picture of his, as famous as the Corpus Domini 
procession, is " II Voto." It represents a number of peasant 

men and women who, to carry out a vow 
•' II Voto." made either at their own instigati<Mi or at 

that of some priest, creep on their hands and 
knees along the church floor, licking the same with their 
tongues, until they arrive at the altar steps, where, on a 
carpet surrounded by tapers, stands the ghastly skull of 
St. Pantaleone, all encased in gold and jewels. The mouths 
of the votaries — often also the hands and knees — are all 
blood-stained and torn ere they arrive at their destination ; 
but the greater the laceration, the higher the merit of their 
act in the eyes of the poor, benighted people. It is a scene 
to make the blood curdle, to cause us to despair of progress 
and enlightenment ; and it is remarkable indeed that it should 
have been painted of all men in the world by Michetti, whose 
brush seemed dedicated to the brighter, lighter, happier 
aspects of South Italian life. In this country church — 
perhaps a sanctuary on the summit of some hill — we behold 
a peasant population sunk in all the ecstatic convulsions of 
a blind, stupid, and ignorant credulity — a credulity that 
recalls the darkest ages of barbarism, and seems too remote 
from all higher and finer aspirations to be dignified with the 
name of faith. The picture might be designated as the 
apotheosis of grovelling superstition. 

Of late Michetti has not exhibited much, but he is never idle. 
He loves to occupy himself with pursuits outside of his own 

sphere ; for instance for a whole year he did 
The Igniter's nQ^t^ng b^t bicycle. His fervent imagination 

shows itself in many bye-paths, as, for exam- 
ple, the carpet he planned on one occasion when Queen 
Margherita came to Naples. The foundation was of blue 
velvet, to represent the lovely blue seas that surround Italy 

7— (2395) 



90 Italy of the Italians 

on either side ; the peninsula itself was outhned in gold, and 
branches of marguerites were painted to indicate the chief 
cities. Each was the work of an artist. Michetti painted 
the posy that should stand for Naples. He painted it most 
exquisitely ; indeed, the whole was such a work of Art that 
the Queen, when it was thrown down for her, saw it, admired, 
and then stepped aside. She would not walk, she said, on 
such artistic treasures. The whole idea of such a carpet is 
thoroughly Neapolitan, and reflects their love of splendour, 
of rich colour, of bizarre and often quaint effects. 

" The great difficulty with which we Neapolitan painters 
have to contend," one of the most eminent of these said to 
me a while ago, " is the vivid natural colouring 
Vivid Colouring of q^j- superb bay. Even dwellers in the 
Painters. northern parts of Italy are apt to think our 
productions untrue to life, and hence how 
much more so you who abide in the foggy North, where the 
sun does not bring out effects with the untempered crudeness 
it does with us." These words are, indeed, most true, and 
herein may perhaps lie the reason why that vigorous and 
most active school of painters which modern Naples has 
evoked, has not at present found sufficient recognition north 
of the Alps. Among these painters Edoardo Dalbono also 
takes a leading place. He has made Naples the town and 
its history peculiarly his own. One of his earliest as well 
as most famous pictures treats of the Excommunication 
of Manfred, King of Sicily, son of the Emperor 
^^^rib*"*^^^ °^ Frederick II of Germany, a figure that seems 
from all times to have exercised a strong 
fascination over Italian poets, romance writers, and painters. 
Who does not recall Dante's splendid description* of how 
Manfred in person relates to his visitor the details of his 
lineage, his death at the great decisive Battle of Benevento, 
his dishonourable burial, due to the fact that he died in 
" contumacy of Holy Mother Church " ? The other is the 

♦ Purg. 3, 112. et seq. 



The Painters 91 

" Island of the Sirens," a picture that, hke the " Manfred," 
aroused fierce controversies. It was, if possible, a yet more 
dramatic presentation of an old-world fable. The Sirens 
are at home in the Gulf of Naples; we feel this painter has 
seen them, has listened to their seductive song ; there is an 
originality, a truth about this mode of presentation, that 
strikes the beholder with wonder and admiration. 

Dalbono's sketches are as remarkable as his pictures. They 
embrace every phase of the Neapolitan atmosphere and life, 

including the most lovely and the most 
Neapolitan repulsive types of that strange population — 

old sailors, weather-worn and wind-dried ; 
youthful forms, graceful and like bits of living bronze ; bodies 
so well made it is difficult to believe they are not Greek 
sculptures come to life ; women fair, dark, yellow, white and 
brown ; in a word, types of that seething, over-populated 
corner of Southern Italy, on which all-levelling civilization 
has not yet set its seal. 

The sea of Naples and Naples women are Dalbono's strong 
points. The latter he produces with potent touches in all 
their distinct peculiarity. For the Naples woman is quite 
a type apart from other Italians. She is voyante, her form is 
much developed ; she combines Eastern luxuriance with 
Greek severity in a manner that must be seen to be under- 
stood. Her full, rich lips, her passionate eyes tell that she 
loves luxury and gaiety, and nevertheless there is about her 
a softness, an abandonment, an indolence, that makes us 
scarcely prepared to find her so energetic and quivering with life. 
I have dealt thus fully with these three characteristic and 
prominent painters because I believe that thus rather than by 

cataloguing a long list of names is it possible 

o?^this^Schoo? *° S^^^ ^" ^^^^ °^ ^^^ nature of modern 

Neapolitan art. But it must not, therefore, 

be supposed that the Neapolitan regions produce no other men 

worthy of mention. There are, to enumerate a few, Vincenzq 

Caprile and Alceste Campriani, interpreters of Neapolitan 



92 Italy of the Italians 

street and country life, the delicate and subtle observation 
of Pratella, Esposito with his notable seascapes, Brancaccio 
the water-colourist, who reproduces with keen vivacity the 
animated popular customs of the lively town, Buono who 
paints its fishermen and their manners, de Sanctis who 
presents its lovely views, and many others. 

One note they have more or less in common, and that is a 
love for colour and a local patriotism that causes them to 
select for their pictures reproductions of the scenes that 
surround them. 

Sicily, closely allied to Naples by geographical position 
and in the matter of sunlight and vivid colouring, has produced 

few local artists either in the past or in the 
Sicilian Art. present, perhaps because owing to the 

unhappy political conditions, the ill effects 
of which still survive in that enchanting island, her talented 
sons were forced into exile. She can make boast, however, 
of the Palermitan Francesco Lojacono, whose " Oyster 
Fishers " obtained for him an instant success. He belongs, 
perhaps, rather to the older than the ultra-modern school, 
but he is a careful and observant artist. 

Able, too, is the pastel painter, de Maria Bergler, nor must 
Paolo Vetri, a Sicilian by birth, a Neapolitan by marriage 
and habitation, be left unnamed, for he has proved himself 
a rarely skilful and tasteful decorator of churches and public 
edifices. 

It is a curious fact that the Roman painters, in contra- 
distinction to their southern colleagues, possess no dominant 

accent, either in form or spirit ; it is yet 

Roman another instance of the remarkable atavism 
Pmtitcrs 

which pervades all Italian life, that the same 

may be said of Roman art in the past centuries. Never, even 

in the most glorious days of Italian art, was there really a 

Roman school of painting. There were individual painters 

in Rome, and there are individual painters now, but there is 

no Roman school 



The Painters 93 

Well known in England, and perhaps even more appreciated 
there than in Italy, is Giovanni Costa, lately dead, the friend 
of Lord Leighton, with whom he had certain pictorial affinities, 
as, for example, in the hardness of his drawing and a certain 
harshness of colour. Setting this aside, however, the man 
was a poet with his brush and rendered with rare comprehen- 
sion the subtle effects of Nature revealed by the bare sunburnt 
Roman Campagna, and by the classic landscapes of the 
Sabine and Alban Hills. Indeed, Costa was in a measure 
the founder of a school of Roman landscape painters, for his 
influence is distinctly felt in the work of the younger men, 
and especially among those who paint in water-colour ; all 
of them treat landscape in what I may be allowed to call 
the modern manner, that is, subjectively, — ^landscape passed 
through the alembic of their individual brain. The often 
weird and mysterious Roman landscape has also been handled 
with poetic and suggestive touches by Vitalini, a young 
painter who perished miserably in 1905 during a mountain 
excursion. His coloured etchings are exquisite bits, revealing 
a rare security of touch and felicity of choice in theme and 
treatment. Of late he had also turned his attention to the 
Venetian Lagoons. A lover, too, of the solemn austerity of 
the Roman Campagna is Enrico Coleman, who, despite his 
English surname, is a true Roman. He loves to people these 
vast wastes with the shaggy race of horses that they breed 
and the rough picturesque keepers who herd them. A 
representative of the older style of anecdote painting is 
Jacovacci, who selects historical moments for his themes ; 
while the over-elaborated and dressed-up manner is repre- 
sented by the works of Maccari, a Sienese by birth, a Roman 
by election, who, among other matters, has frescoed the 
walls of a room in the splendid old Palazzo Pubblico of Siena 
with scenes from the history of Italy's latest political 
resurrection. 
But the only Romans beside Costa who enjoy a European 



94 Italy of the Italians 

fame, and who are really notable, are Antonio Mancini, who 

has exhibited in the Royal Academy, and 

Antonio Aristide Sartorio, who was called to Germany 
Mancini. ■^ 

as Professor of the Weimar Art School. 

Mancini is like to no one but himself, and his pictures 
wherever seen provoke the fiercest controversy. He is 
bizarre, he is mannered, he is eccentric, whatever you will, 
but despite this there is behind it all a man of strong will 
and marked individuality who disdains no means to arrive 
at the results he desires. He will insert into his coloured 
mass pieces of glass, of tin, of lead, clarinet keys, and what not 
besides, to obtain certain effects of light that appear to him 
unattainable with the brush, he will lay on his colours as with 
a trowel. No matter, he holds us in his grip because of the 
plastic vigour of the whole, the keen sense of vitality that 
emanates from all he touches. 

Aristide Sartorio is of a very different stamp. He lost 
himself at first in the marsh of Spanish art as represented by 
Fortuny, whose facile influence has been rather disastrous 
over the younger Italian men. By a virile effort he liberated 
himself from this leading and strengthened his soul by drawing 
inspiration from the best examples of the Italian Renaissance. 
After this he learnt to know and to esteem the chej d'aeuvres 
of current French art, and finally he was uplifted and chas- 
tened by contact with the English pre-Raphaelites, notably 
D. G. Rossetti and Burne-Jones. His most personal note 
are his exquisite pastels of the Roman Campagna, in which 
it is evident that an intense love for his natal earth has dictated 
these colour poems of delicate thought and sentiment. In 
these, beside an individual mode of feeling, there is also an 
individual touch of technique. In his fantastic and allegorical 
pictures a pessimistic chord is struck. The prevailing idea 
of the artist seems to be that there exists a maleficent element 
that torments, crushes and destroys all mankind. In the 
Roman Gallery of Modern Art may be seen his grand diptych 
" Diana of Ephesus and the Slaves," and also " The Gorgon," 



The Painters 95 

who looks on men only to destroy them, both emphasizing 

these ideas. But whether a philosopher or a landscape 

poet, Sartorio is always interesting, suggestive and attractive, 

a glory to his profession and to Rome, an intellectual artist 

of wide literary culture and refined taste. 

Piedmont has never had a great art school in the past. 

Such painters as she possessed belonged rather to the minor 

lights, and this observation remains true until 

The Art of to-day. The Piedmontese have been men 
Piedmont. , ■'. , , , . , i ,, , 

of action, hard thmkers, rather than poets 

and dreamers, and the strength and the rigidity that dis- 
tinguishes them makes itself felt in their art. It is perhaps 
this trait that inclines them so markedly toward landscape. 
Landscape-painting, and especially the painting of the scenery 
of the Alpine foot-hills that shelter Turin exercises over these 
artists a never-ending attraction. Chief among them stands 
Marco Calderini, who understands so perfectly how to extract 
from a landscape, no matter how humble, its deeper spiritual 
meaning. And this is, perhaps, the Piedmontese keynote. 
An intimate spiritual strain seems to pervade their delinea- 
tions of nature, and as far as technique is concerned this is 
usually rendered with a robust vigour that is quite unlike the 
Tuscan or Venetian treatment of landscape scenes. Indeed, 
the truth of Amiel's words is once more made manifest when 
he says of landscape-painting : " Chaque paysage est un etat 
d'ame." 

Curious that in a united kingdom each province should 
thus retain a more or less individual physiognomy. There 
still exist in Piedmont followers of the old school of technique 
and of theme, of carefully elaborated details and serio-comic 
narrative subject, but Piedmont has also its rebels, who, 
throwing overboard all tradition, and anxious to produce 
new light effects, employ as their medium a prismatic 
decomposition of colours which obliges the spectator's eye 
to recompose the whole into a unity of effect. Some do this 
with broad splashes of colour, others with minute dots, with 



96 Italy of the Italians 

the result that the picture resembles either a Byzantine or a 
Roman mosaic. 

No Piedmontese artist is more talked of than Giacomo 
Grosso, or, with a certain section, more popular. His robust 

and rather rough talent makes itself felt 
Giacomo especially in his portraits, painted with 

unquestionable ability, but with a desire 
rather to flaunt his own dexterity than to reproduce faithfully 
the features of his model. Thus he loves to turn a picture 
into a symphony of related colours, or of one dominant tint ; 
with a result that is not always happy for the subject, as in 
his famous picture of the Duchess of Aosta, where the whole 
canvas is bathed in a light violet hue. His subject pictures 
have often scandalized, for example, his " Last Meeting," 
at the Venice Exhibition of 1895, where a dead Don Juan 
lies upon his bier and is surrounded by a group of his victims, 
a melodramatic and insincere work that scarcely merited all 
the excitement, the discussions as to place of the nude and 
so forth that it evoked. 

Closely allied to Piedmont geographically and mentally is 
Lombardy, and it is to Lombardy that Italy owes the most 

robust and original painter after Morelli and 
GreT p'afnter ^i^hetti that she can boast of in this century. 

I refer to Giovanni Segantini, who died in 
1901, in his forty-fourth year, a victim to his ardour to study 
in the depth of winter the snow he so loved on the virgin 
Alpine heights. Born at Arco, on the Italian frontier, in 1858, 
he was the son of very poor parents, who left him orphaned 
at a tender age. Ill-treated, he fled from home into Lom- 
bardy, where he obtained a post as swineherd. It was while 
following this occupation, like a second Giotto, that his 
talent was revealed to himself and to others. But, unlike 
Giotto, he found no rich patron and it was by sorry expedients, 
the painting of blinds and sign-boards and what not else, 
that at last he was able to enter the Milanese Art Academy. 
His first work, painted for lack of means to buy canvas on 



The Painters 97 

the back of an old fire-screen, with colours obtained from a 
friendly grocer in return for a shop sign, represented the 
Choir of Sant' Antonio. It instantly excited interest and 
revealed at a flash the vigour that is Segantini's pictorial 
characteristic. What a critic said at the time of this picture 
holds good throughout the whole of Segantini's marvellously 
productive if too brief career. " Taken all in all a genius 
that has developed itself from out of its own strength, unham- 
pered by the schola,stic principles that but too often serve 
to modify if not to choke the expression of original inspiration." 
And, indeed, the Academic chains could not bind him. He 
soon freed himself even from the Academy itself, and from 

the stifling atmosphere of city life, pitching 
The Ideals of j^jg ^^^^ ^^ ^^ie lovely Brianza district that 
Segantini. „ , , ^ ,• , , -rr ^ 

flanks the Italian lakes. Here was begun 

that devotion to the study of rural life and landscape that was 
to become his distinguishing feature. Here he painted his 
first pastorals, idyllic in composition and colouring ; here he 
found his ideals. To quote his own words, " An art without 
ideals is like Nature without life." 

But if he had found his ideals he had not yet found his 
technique. His colour scheme was sombre, resembling that 
of the Milanese Cremona, the artist who was the true father 
of Lombard modern art, and resembling also that of the 
Frenchman Millet, with whom all through his life Segantini 
had such curious psychic affinity although it was long after 
art critics had already classed him as a follower and imitator 
of Millet that he first saw a work of that painter. 

As he advanced in his art there also increased in him an 
imperative craving after solitude. The Brianza became too 
populous for his taste, and he was drawn upwards towards 
the Alps of the Orisons, the outlines of which he could see 
upon the horizon. Here he founded for himself a home, and 
for years worked quietly, steadily, industriously, with no 
society but that of his wife and children. When at last even 
the heights of Savognino did not suffice him, he removed 



98 Italy of the Italians 

his lares and penates to the Maloya, 6,000 feet above sea- 
level, at the head of the Engandine tableland, where he could 
dwell within constant vision of the everlasting snowfields 
and glaciers that exercised such a weird attraction over his 
fantasy. 

It would prove wearisome to enumerate all that he painted 

and drew in these years. I will but mention a few of his most 

noted Alpine scenes. " The Drinking 

Alpine Scenes. Trough " (gold-medalled at Paris), " Ave 
Maria " that received the same honour in 
1883 at Amsterdam, "Sheep-shearing," "Ploughing" (exhib- 
ited in London in 1888), "The Day's Last Labour," "The 
Return Home " : this last a pathetic picture that enshrines an 
ancient Alpine custom, which is that a mountain dweller 
should be brought back by his own people to lie among them 
if he has died below in the plains. In Segantini's picture a 
bearded mountaineer leads by the bridle a shaggy horse that 
is drawing a cart on which a coffin is corded. Upon it is 
seated the bitterly weeping young widow of the dead man, 
holding their little son upon her knee. The driver walks 
with bowed head and slow step. He is garbed in the cloak 
which, inherited from generation to generation, and in accord- 
ance with immemorial custom, is only brought out for wear 
upon such mournful days. Rain-sodden and muddy is the 
pathway that skirts the mountains, the covering sky is of 
leaden hue. Only the purple sheen of the glaciers, suffused 
with the last tints of sunset, contribute a dash of colour to 
enliven the gloomy scene. 

It has been objected that the landscape with its giant Alps 
embraces too vast a space, diverting attention from the pic- 
ture's chief motif, the little group of mourners. But this was 
exactly the artist's intention. It is this that distinguishes 
his pictures from the conventional genre scenes. He wished 
to emphasize the impression just by this contrast of the 
punyness of human existence with the solemn grandeur of 
eternally enduring nature. 



The Painters 99 

In all these representations of simple pastoral life Segantini 
showed himself as thorough!}^ in sympathy with his subjects 
and the note he has thus introduced into Italian art is one that 
had been quite foreign to it. What MiUet did for France 
Segantini did for Italy, that is, he devoted his art to the cause 
of the poor and lowly and faithfully depicted the life of the 
peasants, not dressed in their best with conventional smiling 
faces, obviously sitting for their portraits, but peasants in 
their daily existence, in work and sorrow and joy, with the 
unheeded tragedy and unconscious poetry of the simple 
peasant life. 

During his last years Segantini modified his style as well as 
his technique and his colouring. He inclined towards symbol- 
ism, suppressing details and endeavouring to 

L^e^^sTle embody ideas, and he did this in the manner 
^^' of the elder ItaHan Primitives. It was a 
curious transformation this, the painter of realistic peasant 
life turned dreamer. Among these pictures are " The Punish- 
ment of Luxury " and " The Retribution of Unnatural 
Mothers " — both themes inspired by an Indian poem, and 
" The Angel of Life," clearly permeated with the influence 
of Botticelli. 

His further development, his further contributions to Ait, 
remain among the sad " might have beens " of Life. He who 
so loved the snow died from its effects, was borne to his grave 
in a heavy snow-storm, and laid to rest in the little mountain 
God's-acre he painted on one of his last canvases, a snow 
scene entitled " Faith Comforting Sorrow." 

After Segantini, Filippo Garcano is considered the leader 

of the young Lombard school. Realism is his characteristic : 

landscape is his strong point. His land- 

Filippo Garcano. scapes, however, as might be expected from 

a realist, are objective rather than subjective, 

revealing themselves to him from a somewhat panoramic 

point of view. Hence he is peculiarly well fitted to render 

the impressions produced by the vast, endless Lombard plains 



100 Italy of the Italians 

with their luminous harmonies of light effects. Eugenio 
Gignous and Pompeo Mariani are also able landscapists, while 
Mose Bianchi, who belongs rather to the older school^ has 
painted with sympathetic comprehension the rural incidents 
of existence in that fertile country. 

Original, on the other hand, is Gaetano Previati, both for 
his technique and his themes. He is a Ferrarese by birth, 

but by domicile a Lombard. In him we meet 
Prevfat? ^^^^ ^^^ another modern Italian who has 

been touched by the Pre-Raphaelite influence. 
Curious that this return to the Italian Primitives should 
have needed to take the road via England and France 
to influence the land of its origin ! Of a restless mental 
disposition, endowed with fervent imagination, intolerant 
of routine or vulgarity, his pictures impress by their 
distinction even if they are not always sympathetic. 
A searcher and an experimenter, he is not invariably successful 
though ever interesting, for his aim is to render his art a 
suggestive synthetic vision of feelings and of ideas. Two 
pictures of his especially remain in my memory. First, the 
" Madonna of the Lilies," which attracted so much attention 
at that Venice Exhibition when a whole room was set apart 
for Previati's works. It has all the merits and all the defects 
of this original and elect master. Much discussion has this 
picture aroused ; some think that it is too fiat, the rows upon 
rows of ascension lilies that flank the mother and child too 
symmetrical and too monotonously alike, too slightly painted. 
The fact is, the artist desired to render the impression of a 
vision, no corporeal reality, and hence he has not striven after 
exactitude so much as to give a feeling that the whole is 
bathed in a golden light, resulting in a harmonious tranquillity 
such as is found in certain calm compositions of the Primitives. 
That the canvas is on too large a scale for the theme I am 
willing to admit, but that is a modern fault induced perhaps 
by the demands of Exhibitions and the need to strike the 
vision of the hurried visitor. 



The Painters 101 

The second picture to which I refer is called " The Funeral 
of the Virgins." It shows an endlessly long procession of 
white-veiled maidens, flower-garlanded, who accompany to 
her grave a lost companion. A spirituality of vision, and a 
tender melancholy permeate the whole, which is redeemed 
from too great sadness by its fantastic delicacy. 

An original artist is Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, a strenuous 
champion of the Divisionist theories which he treats, however, 

in an individual manner, unlike that of his 
Lesser Artists. French predecessors. He is also a powerful 

etcher, an able critic who keeps abreast 
with the modern art movement of Europe, and a landscapist 
of curiously personal character. 

Names crowd to my memory but the exigencies of space 
forbid me to catalogue. A word in passing, however, for 
Giuseppe Mentessi, the artist of mystic suavity and spiritual 
grace. Indeed, if we desire to synthesize the Lombards we 
must take note of this leaning to the abstruse, the visionary, 
that distinguishes the best men and which may be a result 
of their northern affinities, the intermixture of Austrian blood 
in the population and the neighbourhood of the Alps. 

And yet a word concerning an artist who, though he has 
been dead a quarter of a century, is only just being discovered 

and appreciated by his compatriots. I refer 
A Great ^q -^he landscape painter Fontanesi, who 
Painter. might be defined as the last of the great 

school of Turner and Constable, a direct 
descendant from Claude Lorraine, a man above all a 
poet, one enthusiastic of Leonardo's maxim, " La pittura e 
una poesia che si vede " (Painting is poetry that can be 
seen). His works, painted like those of the Quattrocentisti 
on a prepared guezza ground, are as luminous to-day 
as when first put on canvas. And though he puts in 
figures with his landscapes, they are mere staffages, mere 
accessories placed there as if to bring into greater 
relief the inferiority of Man as compared with the 



102 Italy of the Italians 

portentous miracle of Nature. Fontanesi did not merely 
search after the solution of technical problems like his com- 
rades of the epoch — he sought also after a perfection of con- 
ception in the construction of his pictures. He knew how 
to choose, how to eliminate, how to concentrate, with a 
sureness of instinct that is almost Japanese. He had a love 
for vast horizons, for open, rolling moorland, for noble massing 
of verdure, for the fulgid sweep of skies, for the horizon of 
the looming storm, for wide spaces of light and shadow. His 
work is full of sentiment, yet totally devoid of sentimentality. 
There is a verve, a vigour, a certainty in his touch, a breadth 
and sanity and suavity that lifts them high. 

To pass from the Lombards to the Tuscans is to pass from 

winter into spring. Their salient characteristic is a rare 

elegance of draughtsmanship coupled with a 

Tuscan^School &®^^^^ delicacy of tints and tones, such as 

is revealed in the lovely hillsides of Tuscany 

where the green of the foliage is silvered with the grateful 

greyness of the olive. Curiously enough the famous " cradle 

of the arts," as Dante calls Florence, was one of the last in 

Italy to follow the latest pictorial manifestations, and far too 

long her annual local Art Exhibitions were crowded with 

licked and smoothed canvases dealing with petty themes, 

devoid of ideals or ideas and appealing chiefly to the 

uncultured tourist and the oleograph reproducer. 

Nevertheless, even while tl|is deplorable art seemed to hold 
the upper hand, there were men quietly, unobtrusively and 
unselfishly working towards better ends. The man, however, 
to whom modern Tuscan art owes its liberation is the recently 
deceased Telemaco Signorini. 

An Italian writer, speaking of this artist, one day defined 

him in Dante's phrase as " un Fiorentino spirito bizarro " 

(that exasperate spirit Florentine), intending 

Liberator of ^^ emphasize with the adjective bizarro the 

eminently original character of this artist's 

genius. This originality placed Signorini at the head and 



The Painters 103 

forefront of that progressive, not to say revolutionary, 
movement in Tuscan art which helped it to throw off the 
empty fetters of the Academy. 

The son of an artist, born in 1835, Telemaco was home- 
taught and so never passed through the trite Academic 
curriculum. His first exhibited picture (1861), " The Vene- 
tian Ghetto," was a note of defiance flung at the authorities 
and marked the beginning of the rebellion Signorini effected 
in the tents of art. It was a gauntlet flung at all 
the ancient Academic formulas, at worn-out systems, at 
antiquated precepts. 

But even before this Signorini had become enamoured of 
the Macchia* as the impressionist school, then but dawning, 
was nicknamed by the Tuscan artists. One of their number 
had imported it from Paris, where it was then practised in its 
earlier, milder form. 

Now, one of the creeds of this brotherhood was that teaching 
is both useless and pernicious ; hence, of course, they took no 
pupils. The fundamental basis of their creed 
The Macchiaioli. was that each man must work out his indi- 
viduality in his own way, and study to 
accentuate his individuality rather than suppress it. Like 
their French brethren, the Macchiaioli went into the country 
to study, to work, to seek for new effects of light. The sight 
of washing hung out on a line in which the white of the clothes 
was accentuated against the background of a grey wall or 
of green trees, was sufficient to send them into ecstasies. 
The themes of their pictures were subjects as trifling and 
common as a flock of sheep facing the sun ; a hill with the 
sun behind it ; the blot that an ox makes standing in the 
middle of a field or crossing the road at mid-day in the month 
of July, and so forth. But trifling though these subjects seem, 
they weje always useful in that search after truth, after values, 

* In Italian the word Macchia, which means Uterally a spot, is a 
term applied to underwood, or a small forest, as well as to the 
impressionist painters, and to blotches and spots of any kind. 



104 Italy of the Italians 

after chiaroscuro, to which the Macchiaioli had dedicated 
themselves. 

Of this band Telemaco was the most convinced and the 
most advanced ; impatient of any scholastic yoke, entirely 

enamoured of the Macchia, he flayed with his 

Signonni pungent powers of irony and his biting words 

New Views, ^he youthful product of the Academy of Fine 

Arts who ventured to oppose their 
academic ideas of Art to his rule-of-thumb experiments. 
He even ventured to poke fun at venerated masterpieces, 
pointing out where the great past masters had gone astray, 
where they had departed from nature. He argued and talked 
and ridiculed until many a one gave in, not always because 
he was convinced, but because he feared to appear absurd 
and not in accordance with modern ideas. And it was in this 
way that in Tuscany the new views concerning Art conquered 
the old. 

Nor was it with words alone that Signorini fought for his 
theories. He confirmed them with his pictures, though most 
often at first they remained unsold and were passed over by the 
art critics of the day with glacial silence. But he was not 
discouraged, and worked on undaunted, pruning his youthful 
extravagances, but ever remaining faithful to his love of truth 
as he understood it. 

And gradually his work found favour both in and out of 
Italy. Indeed, his works were soon in great request in the 
English market. 

In 1888 he first visited Scotland, for which he at once 
conceived a great liking. There on the spot he painted his 

impressions of Edinburgh, but it was not the 
Scottish Scenes, modern monumental Edinburgh he painted, 

but the characteristic, squalid, dirty, close 
quarters of Auld Reekie. Besides producing the effects of 
the surroundings, the difficult values of fog, Signorini also 
wanted to reproduce the street types, the Highland soldier 
and the beggar lassie. He who had understood to render 



The Painters 105 

so well the atmosphere, moral and physical, of the Ghetto 
of Venice, the Ghetto of Florence, and the Ponte Vecchio, he 
who is a master in the drawing of dirty, narrow, squalid alleys 
and bye-ways, found that old Edinburgh excited his fantasy 
and imagination to the last degree. He has rarely done better 
work than in his Edinburgh pictures. This picturesque spe- 
ciality of Signorini's, combined with an excellent technique, 
constitutes his characteristic individuality as an artist. 

In all Signorini's works, and they are very numerous, even 
the most superficial spectator cannot fail to notice that each 

of these impressions is received direct from 
c • "f* ^ Nature, and that they are not mere renderings 

of the surface of things but put down after 
their creator has penetrated their inner meaning, their soul. 
And having himself a straightforward mind that conceives 
without subtleties, he also put down his impressions in his 
canvas with a certain directness which was almost crude but 
which at all times was forcible, bold and effective. There 
were no half-phases in Signorini's presentments, and this made 
itself felt above all in his treatment of lights and shadows. 
He never diluted his methods of expression, as his countrymen 
are apt to do, enamoured as they are of rhetoric. Nor did 
Signorini ever stop for a moment to consider whether his 
subjects were likely to please. He was a realist by conviction 
and despised work made up to please others. 

Side by side with Signorini there worked in the cause of 
reform Stefano Ussi, also lately dead, and that Nestor of 

Tuscan artists, Giovanni Fattori, still living 
fW^ and working. Ussi, however, though he 

joined the rebel camp, was by temperament 
rather of the older school, and his pictures, which at first gained 
him much fame and aroused some clamour, steadily declined 
in artistic value as time progressed. Not so Fattori, who 
though born in 1828, had so well learnt his lessons from 
Costa, was so intolerant of the Academic yoke, that even 
to-day, when he is almost an octogenarian, his etchings and 

8-{2395) 



106 Italy of the Italians 

sketches and pictures betray a youthful vigour, an individual- 
ity of method and of vision that rightly gives them a high 
place. It is military life in all its phases, and especially, so 
to speak, its undress phases, the country rides, the shoeing and 
branding of horses, the arrival of the mail in camp, and such 
like incidents to which he gives a pulsating vitality. 

Nevertheless, Fattori and Ussi still represent the objective 
schools. Individuality, however, was making itself more 
and more felt. Therefore, omitting mention of certain older 
searchers who have passed away, I will rather turn to the 
younger men who have more or less been touched by the 
Macchiaioli influence. It is easy to see that from them they 
learnt to love truth, nature and progress. On the other hand, 
they never deny their Tuscan origin. 

It is really strange how these regional distinctions survive. 
Modern Tuscan art is pervaded with a serene and reposeful 
spirit. The Tuscans love the sunshine as all 
Character of jjjust love it who live in this " land of lands," 
but they love and paint it as they see it in 
this favoured province, not with the intense ardour wherewith 
Phoebus Apollo inundates the South, bringing all colours to 
glow and glitter. The sun-god kissing the fairy-like hills 
and dales of Tuscany suffuses all nature with a soft golden 
haze. And the blood of the Tuscan flows less hotly than that 
of his southern brother. Little interests, little pleasures, 
little sensations appeal more to his quieter temperament than 
stormy passions. What he likes to represent is the simple, 
the purely human. Rarely does he rise to heroic or romantic 
heights. Nor has the affected or forced any attraction for 
his eminently sane and equitable mind. And this holds good 
of the past as of the present. 

Eminently an offspring of his province is Francesco Gioli, 
whose landscape and figure themes are delicate, graceful, 
suave, elegant, correct and unmannered. The same remarks 
apply to Arturo Faldi, to Raffaello Sorbi, Adolf o and Angiolo 
Tommasi, Niccolo Cannicci, Egisto Ferroni, and many more 



The Painters 107 

whom it would be tedious to enumerate. Not a great art 
but an art good to live with, pictures that it is pleasant to 
have hanging upon the walls of our habitations, an art that 
enfolds us in a just and healthy atmosphere. 

The men I have named belong, however, rather to the older 
generation. In the works of the younger men it is pleasant 

to observe that their landscapes are no longer 
Landscape treated as faithful productions of what is seen, 

but that they have become illuminated with 
soul. Italy is at last following in the wake of that trend 
in modem landscape whose character Oscar Wilde so 
masterfully summed up in his " De Profundis " when he 
says : " In its subtlety and sensitiveness of impres- 
sion, its suggestion of a spirit dwelling in external 
things and making its raiment of earth and air, 
of mist and city alike, and in the morbid sympathy of its 
inoods, tones and colours, modem landscape art is realising 
for us pictorially what was realised in such plastic perfection 
by the Greeks." These new landscapes are no longer trite 
in theme and treatment like those we are accustomed to see 
in the art dealers' windows and which tempt the Philistine 
buyer. And what is further noticeable is that in most of 
these modern canvases Man is distinguished by his absence. 
Nature here exists per se and not for or through Man. It is 
in this respect that the modem note is most truly sounded. 
These landscapes might be said to be dematerialized. 

A strong and very individual artist is Giorgio Kienerk, 
a true Italian, despite his German surname — figure-painter, 

poster-painter, sculptor and book illustrator, 

ir'*"^^rk ^^ ^^ ^^^' ^^° ^^^ recently removed to Paris, 
where he is making for himself a fair fame. 
One of his most original traits are his water-colour " smears " 
where, without apparent outlines, he makes suggestive 
portraits of wonderful vitahty and resemblance, despite the 
fact that they are laid on in one tint only, giving the whole 
effect of a rich painting. 



108 Italy of the Italians 

In decorative art the Tuscans have lately made a forward 

start. Especial mention must be made of De Karolis, the 

illustrator of D'Annunzio's plays, an artist 

A *t^*t*^* who in a sense stands in a classical atmosphere 

outside of modern life and transports us into 

surroundings " that never were on land or sea." Yet another 

decorative artist of quaint imaginative bravura is Galileo 

Chini, who has also made a name for himself as the designer 

of most of the best works turned out by the Arte della 

Ceramica, a society which took the gold medal at Paris and 

St. Louis. 

In portraiture, never a specially Tuscan art, the moderns 
too are not strong, despite the fashionable portrait-painters 
Corcos and Galli, and the younger men, 
p°'*ite** Costetti, who is a little violent in method, 
and Ghiglia, who has good perception. As 
a rule modem Italian portrait-painting is too smooth, the 
artist seeks to flatter his sitter and fails to render his individual- 
ity. This may arise from lack of psychological intuition, or of 
patience to study their subject, or more likely from that 
innate amiability of the Italian character which never likes 
to say or do anything that may not prove agreeable. 

An interesting figure, an artist born out of his time, is 
Riccardo Meacci, a Quattrocentista, who paints little altar- 
pieces and triptychs quite in the manner of 
^ccardo ^ds great forebears. It was the English who 
discovered this artist, whom many Italians do 
not even know by name to this day. Queen Victoria honoured 
him with her especial patronage, and he executed various 
works for her, often from the Queen's own suggestions, such 
as the picture painted in memory of Prince Henry of Batten- 
berg's untimely death. Meacci is an ascetic of the brush, at 
graceful symbolist who understands how to give in his tiny 
pictures all the solemnity and importance of larger canvases. 
I must still say a word for the most promising of all the 




Photo by 



r II.Fincham, ]Vi.s/Du\.uh 
THH GRAND CANAL, VENICE 



The Painters 109 

Tuscans, Plinio Nomellini, who lives on the Pisan Riviera, 
far from the haunts of men. His career has 
A Promising j^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ « Hunger and Art were " — 
Tuscan Artist. ,. ;'. , ,, , , 

accordmg to his own words — two phantoms 

that ever danced before my eyes, and since the two seemed 
inseparable, I decided to put up with both." His pictures 
are very hymns to light, and though they have a symbolic 
character, this symbolism is not abstract or archaic. He has 
formed the just equilibrium between decorative art and a 
poetic observation of reality. Remarkable among his works 
are " Colloquy of the Trees," " Youth Triumphant," and " The 
Migration of Mankind." In this latter picture we see a vast 
horizon suffused with clouds and vapour. The figures of the 
hurrying men and women are only just indicated in their 
essentials, in the sombre colours of their garments, their 
banners, and seem almost lost in infinity. This obscure 
mass, moving as by invisible impulse, towards unknown 
goals and destinies, wearying themselves under the inex- 
orable sky, gives to the work an epic force. 

As in the past so in the present the Venetian painters excel 

in the use of colour, luscious, rich, superb and dazzling, like 

the sunlight glinting on the water of their 

^^^S(^^ol*'^" placid lagoons. Indeed, in the past, it was 
the Venetians who closed the historic sequence 
of the grandeur of Italian art with Tiepolo, that splendid 
colourist, who revived the fulgid fantasies of Paolo Veronese. 
And as in the past so in the present it is the exterior aspect 
of things rather than their deeper inner meaning that attracts 
these light-hearted dwellers on the waters. Like the Neapo- 
litans, they have picturesque and suggestive objects ever 
before their eyes, and this, perchance, distracts them from 
making those profounder studies which are rendered 
imperative to those who dwell in less lovely surroundings. 

Still for a time after Tiepolo even the Venetians became 
engulfed in the false and mannered methods of the so-called 
romantic epoch. It was Giacomo Favretto who rescued them 



no Italy of the Italians 

thence and revealed in his canvases the Venice of to-day, 
banishing from his art all that was false and artificial, all pose 
and over-finish, using simple and pure colours and painting 
boldly and naturally. 

His example was quickly followed, for he had found the 
right note demanded by the changed conditions, and now 
there exists at Venice a whole group of artists who demon- 
strate by their works their intuition of the aspirations and 
needs of modern art. 

In this family, that counts several masters amid its ranks, 

a high place pertains to Ettore Tito, His first work to make 

a name for him was entitled " Pescheria," 

Ettore Tito, that fish market of Venice that so gleams 
and glitters with colour. He followed it by 
other works of varied character — now an Alpine landscape, 
now a portrait, now a figure subject, for Tito above all loves 
variety ; he will not be bound within limits, and does not 
foUow up a success in one line with a picture of the same nature. 
Michael Angelo was wont to say "One paints with the brain 
and with the hands." Tito does both. At the same time he 
neither poses as a philosopher or as a psychologist. He only 
wants to represent the truth as he sees it. This has not 
hindered him, however, from also wandering in the paths 
of symbolism with a decorative work entitled " Fortuna." 
Still, in his best years Tito, who is Professor of Drawing at 
the Venetian Academy, has doubtless still much to give to 
the world. 

Casare Laurenti has been influenced by the modern symbol- 
ists, hence he loves to depict on his canvases the antitheses 
so constantly offered to us by existence. 
Casare There are, however, no new thoughts in his 
" Parabola della Vita " which though it is 
painted with a certain brio and also with pathos is perchance 
too self-conscious and of too set purpose. This reproach does 
not fall on his " Fioritura Nuova," an allegorical, decorative 
canvas celebrating the beauties of an Italian spring. Beyond 



The Painters 111 

question, Laurenti is a painter of talent and his works can 
never be overlooked. 

This same remark applies to Pietro Fragiacomo, the sea- 

scapist, the poetic painter of silence, who even more than the 

two Ciardi, father and son, now so noted for 

Land and ^j^gjj. Venetian scenes, renders the melancholy 

ea-scapis s. ^j-g^j^q^i^i^y ^f ^j^g Ocean City. Worthy to 

stand beside him is also Bartolommeo Bazzi, always solemn, 

often mystic in his pallid moonlight effects or in the serene 

quietism of his lagoons. Indeed, in naming the contemporary 

Venetian land and seascapists it is almost invidious to know 

whom to mention and whom to omit. Many are interesting, 

not a few are excellent. 

A subject-painter is Luigi Nono, whose " Refugium 

Peccatorum " is, perhaps, one of the best things in this line 

painted during recent years. The scene is 

Luigi Nono. laid before that picturesque figure of the 
Virgin that stands upon the bridge of Chioggia. 
A broken-hearted woman kneels before it, pouring out her 
sorrows and her sins to the Mother of Mercy. This work has 
been acquired for the nation and now hangs in Rome. Nono's 
individuality and his power of reading the popular soul, are 
shown in all his pictures, which though they naturally vary 
somewhat in excellence, are all more or less on the same lines. 

A very strange painter is the man who hides his identity 
under the pseudonym of Marius Pictor. It is not unusual for 
a writer to use a nom de plume, but it is almost 
"Marius Pictor." unique for a painter. This artist has taken 
as his domain the night ; his moonlight and 
starlight effects are strangely weird and suggestive, a pagan 
atmosphere appears to pervade all his conceptions. It is 
manifest that his individuality must be marked. 

Nor is it only in Italy itself that Italian artists have dis- 
tinguished themselves. Many are established in Paris, where 
they are held in high esteem. Who does not remember the 
elegant scenes of high life painted by De Nittis, so early 



112 Italy of the Italians 

removed from art and life, the powerful portraits of 

Boldini, perhaps the finest of modern Italian 
*Varis *" portrait painters ; the genre pictures of Lionello 

Balestrieri, whose "Beethoven" was the 
success of a Parisian Salon ; and Alberto Pisa, who depicts in 
water-colour the characteristic scenes of London life, to 
name but a very few ? 

Such is a succinct and but too superficial survey of contem- 
porary Italian art, in which I have sought to give rather 

an idea of the general trend than to enumerate 
^of' Italian^ ArT ^*^ representatives in detail. How inadequate 

is my attempt I feel yet the more as I turn 
the pages of De Gubernatis' " Dictionary of Living Italian 
Painters," in which over two thousand names are registered. 
But I hope I have at least made good my opening proposition 
and have shown that there does exist a real, living, active and 
noteworthy modern Italian art. Also it will be seen that 
in the artists with whom I have dealt there is absent that 
commercial element which of recent times has made modern 
Italian art a byeword and rendered difficult the way of 
earnest and gifted artists. If we desire to sum up its salient 
features I should be inclined to say that its most notable 
feature consists in that rise of landscape art, which was least 
strongly represented in Italy's glorious past. This is the 
more to be esteemed since there seems something in the 
Italian landscape, with its wonderful brilliancy of colour, 
which renders it difficult to represent adequately, and tempts 
artists into a certain garishness. Hence some of the latest 
Italian painters, inspired by their Northern brethren, have 
chosen for their effects grey or rainy days when the bright 
lights and deep shadows give place to more equal tints. 

In portrait-painting the Italians are trying to revive their 
past fame. Thus, Gelli was specially summoned to Vienna 
to paint the Emperor of Austria, Corcos to Berlin to limn the 
German Kaiser. The last-named artist's splendid portrait 
of the poet Carducci is a real masterpiece, both as regards 



The Painters 113 

likeness, technique and intuition of character. As a rule, 
however, the portraits of women are less good than those 
of men. The Venetian, Lino Selvatico, furnishes almost the 
only exception to this rule. Neither impressionism nor 
symbolism have made much headway, nor are they as a rule 
successful. Neither tendency suits the clear-cut Italian 
intelligence. In genre painting they are strong, while his- 
torical painting and classical subjects, especially the latter, 
are in scant demand, as out of harmony with the trend of 
the day, although the Academies with their usual backward- 
ness continue to propound classic themes for examination 
subjects, alternating them (such is their idea of conforming 
to modern requirements !) with " Quarrels in Wine Shops " 
and " Exteriors of Cobblers' Stalls." For lack of other 
subjects adapted to pictorial treatment, a group of painters 
have taken to representing religious themes, but this not 
from any intention of treating them religiously, but simply 
because they are stories which are known to everybody and the 
supernatural element in them gives scope for artistic treatment. 

A branch in which Italians excel is in all that pertains to 

art restoration. Here their native good taste evinces itself 

as well as their rare manual skill. In the 

Painters and miniaturist's craft, too, they have not lost 

Counterfeits, their cunning. Contemporary Italians will 
copy or invent illuminated books and ad- 
dresses with the same delicacy of touch and wealth of colour 
that is seen in the choral books of old. 

There is another department, too, in which they carry off 
the palm and that is in painting pictures that are made to 
pass off as works of the Old Masters. Some of these are so 
splendidly executed, so exactly reproduce the spirit and 
character of the time and the artist whose title they assume, 
that even experts are continually deceived. There hang 
in all European and American galleries and above all in the 
latter, works from the hands of these painters, truly masters 
in their line. Some even exist in Italian collections. To 



114 Italy of the Italians 

name these men would not be fair. Indeed, they mostly 
work anonymously, but some few quite openly carry on this 
trade and throw the responsibility of deception upon the 
purchaser. It is, moreover, as a rule not the artist but the 
purchaser who labels these wares, and generally this purchaser 
is not a private person but a dealer who passes off these 
fraudulent productions as the genuine product. And it is 
not they who should be blamed for their existence but the 
public, who demand the impossible, who, following a mere 
fashion, prefer the old, simply because it is old, to the new, 
who will not believe that the men of to-day can also turn out 
work worth acquiring. The exercise of a little common-sense 
would hinder the public from falling into these traps, from 
walking into the parlour of this spider. Is it not obvious 
that the supply of masterpieces from the hands of the great 
artists must have been exhausted long ago, that it is the excep- 
tion rather than the rule to find an unknown picture from a 
well-known hand, that, seeing the vicissitudes to which works 
of art are subjected by fire, wanton destruction, normal wear 
and tear of time, the wonder is rather that so much remains 
for us to admire and enjoy. If only these painters and 
sculptors of Frauds might be allowed to develop their often 
most striking talents in a natural direction, Italy would have 
great artists the more to show, and many even who would 
do no discredit to her glorious past. 

I will name but one — the sculptor Bastianini, whose 
marvellously skilful sculpture pervaded and interpenetrated 
with the spirit of the fourteenth century, deceived the greatest 
connoisseurs. Busts from his hand were exhibited till quite 
recently both at the Louvre, at South Kensington, at Berlin 
and elsewhere under high-sounding names, Mino da Fiesole, 
Rossellini, Desiderio and so forth, and might still so figure 
had not Bastianini himself told on those who employed him 
to make these counterfeits. 

And thus, by a natural transition, I have touched on the 
theme of sculpture. 



CHAPTER V 

SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE 

Modern Italian sculpture embraces a wide field, and here, 

if possible, even more than in the domain of painting, the 

aptitude of our contemporaries is denied. 

Sculpture in And in this case the tourist really has great 

Public Places, excuse, for if he judges, as very naturally he 
is led to judge, of modern Italian sculpture 
from the specimens he beholds in public places, churches, 
squares, shop-windows, cemeteries, he is right in dismissing 
it as deplorable. And deplorable it is, for the further reason 
that, with such rare exceptions as almost to vanish into 
nothingness, it is the worst and not the best sculptors to 
whom are entrusted the public monuments, those endless 
series of Garibaldi's, Victor Emmanuel's, Cavour's and 
Humbert's that disfigure every town and village of the Penin- 
sula. The reason is not far to seek. Favouritism, so-called 
competitions, in which the wires are pulled, explains the 
abstention or exclusion of the better men. 

Nevertheless these better men exist, and in sculpture as in 
painting the Italy of to-day can show no mean record. It 
is true that a sad amount of rubbish is turned out, which 
figures above all in the shop windows of cities haunted by the 
foreigner, trivial works of trite imagination and invention, 
too often, unfortunately, executed with rare skill of hand and 
excellent finish of workmanship. But for the existence of 
this rubbish the stranger is responsible. He admires it, he 
buys it, and where there is demand there will always be 
supply. 

It will be objected that the Italians must also admire these 
wares, for works of this class abound in their cemeteries, and 
this is true. Yet amid much that is miserable these 



116 Italy of the Italians 

cemeteries have also good works to show. An evidence of 
this is seen in the sepulchral monuments of Leonardo Bistolfi, 
that most poetic and spiritual sculptor, who seems to have 
made funeral memorials his own. 

Bistolfi is one of the group of sculptors who, inspired by the 
aims of Marochetti, Bartolini and Vela, broke with the 
traditions of classicism and endeavoured to 
^mstolfi^ ^""S the " white art " into contact with our 
age. It was their aim to return to nature 
instead of to tradition for schooling and suggestion. The 
men who formed this group were mostly Piedmontese, and of 
these Bistolfi is perchance the most gifted, certainly the most 
original, and above all the one who, having a marked personal 
character, has known how to give his personal impress to his 
art. Each of Bistolfi's productions is inspired with a marked 
feeling for beauty ; a class of beauty that, perchance, has 
little in common with the beauty of the idealists, but on this 
account is no less transformed with an exquisitely idealistic 
outlook on life, which he interprets with characteristically 
expressive accents, whatever be the subject which arouses 
it, the thought or the sentiment that he seeks to infuse into 
his clay. 

Bistolfi is a poet-sculptor. Studying his works in their 
entirety, works that are eminently penetrated with the 
breath of our age, it is not easy to deduce from them whether 
there preponderates in their creator the realist or the ideologue, 
the sculptor or the thinker. When an artist puts forth works 
so essentially diverse in their manifestations as Bistolfi has 
done, all these questions of school and classification become 
secondary. Bistolfi, like all true artist natures, has an 
exquisite, even if unconscious, comprehension of his environ- 
ment, social as well as aesthetic, and on this account he is 
modern in his ideals as well as in his emotions. His works 
reflect our contemporary methods of thought and feeling, as 
they manifest themselves when refined and glorified by 
aesthetic perceptions. Each of them, so different in their 



Sculpture and Architecture 117 

several themes and sources of inspiration, is the fruit of 
his rare intelligence and knowledge, his sensibility and 
faculty of meditation. 

Born at Casale Monferrato, in 1859, Bistolfi was descended 
from a family of artists. Hence as a baby he already mod- 
elled and carved. His first work was an Angel of Death 
made for the Gampo Santo of Turin. This angel at once 
made manifest the personal nature of his genius. His was 
not the conventional angel we are accustomed to see on graves, 
but had personality, life, individuality ; this angel had 
pondered over the mystery of existence, and had envisaged 
the Eternal. 

The Turin Exhibition of 1880 brought Bistolfi into contact 

with the most modem expressions of plastic art, and generated 

in him a desire to be, so to speak, up to date, 

E^'br"" to dedicate his work to illustrate the spirit of 
his day. In Italy washing is done out of 
doors, and usually in groups, often picturesque to the eye, 
though few painters, and no sculptor, has ever felt attracted 
to draw the theme because of its seemingly innate vulgarity. 
Bistolfi was not repelled by this ; it was precisely such a 
group of washerwomen he chose to model, and he modelled 
them with force, a realism, a knowledge of the psychic char- 
acter and physique of his prototypes, that caused the little 
group to appear a page of Zola written in clay. When 
completed he sent in his work for acceptance to the Promoirice, 
where it was rejected with dismay as indecent and vulgar. 
The artistic jury, composed as usual of a set of old fogies 
rooted in ancient ideas, had utterly failed to grasp the aim 
striven after by the young artist. This refusal to exhibit 
his work was to prove the corner-stone of Bistolfi' s success 
and rapid rise into fame. Denied the chance of showing his 
work in the company of his peers, Bistolfi induced the art 
dealer, Janetti, to expose the group in his shop window, and 
there, under the Portici del Po, for days together the pavement 
was densely packed with a curious crowd anxious to see the 



118 Italy of the Italians 

work the jury had so indignantly rejected. On the Piazza, 
at caf6s and clubs, this audacious piece of work was eagerly 
discussed. It was the topic of the day, and Bistolfi's name 
was in every mouth. Some judged the work a horror and 
agreed with the jury, others lauded it to the skies, but whether 
praising or blaming the original conception, all agreed as to 
the exquisite truth and beauty of the handling. And time, 
as usual, wrought its revenge. In 1884 the same work, cast 
in bronze, appeared at the Exhibition and was honestly and 
impartially criticised and judged. 

But in this early fervour of seeking after a personal path 
the expressions were not all of so naturalistic a character, 

were not all inspired by a youthful passion 
*'*^N*T ^^°"* and effervescence. Bistolfi's is too truly a 

poet's temperament not to have felt the charm 
of simple nature ; the country, its sights and sounds, and 
scents, had also their message to give to his art. Three 
delicately conceived simple, poetic groups, " II Tramonto," 
" Pei Campi," and " Piove," were the fruit of this mental 
mood ; figures, inspirations, taken from the real life of the 
fields, such as Millet painted, not the unreal and theatrical 
Arcady of the poets. 

With a mental endowment such as Bistolfi's, a thinker, 
a reader, a reasoner, it is obvious that he could not always 

remain in one road, or produce works uniform 
Phl'^^^^^h^ °' ^^ their sources of inspiration. Such a nature 

must of necessity traverse many intellectual 
and psychic moods before it will have found inner harmony or 
have reached "the years that bring the philosophic mind;" 
and these would necessarily be reflected in its creations, as is 
the case with all artists, no matter in what field of activity. 
Bistolfi pondered — as who has not pondered ? — on man's 
existence, on life and death, its meaning, its origin, its purpose, 
and these meditations were to result in a work of art, which, 
to my mind, is by far the most remarkable Bistolfi has pro- 
duced, and which, indeed, was the first that attracted my 



Sculpture and Architecture 119 

attention to his genius. It was planned to adorn the sepul- 
chral monument of the Pansa family at Cuneo, and Bistolfi, 

after the manner of the Greeks, gave it a 
"The Sphinx." name, "The Sphinx." It is this work that 

has gained for Bistolfi the reputation of being 
the sculptor of philosophy, the symbolist of metaphysics, the 
work which marked his entrance into the ranks of the symbolist 
artists, a group that has found but few recruits in Italy, where 
the quick, sure eye rather than the eye trained through the 
mind is usually the motive factor in all modern work. Every 
work of Bistolfi's, on the other hand, even his earliest, incor- 
porates an inner and not merely an optic vision. And, 
unlike most artists, his ideas are not used as a means to help 
his art, but his art is their end. In Bistolfi the philosopher 
thinks, creates, whilst the artist expresses. All these qualities 
are focussed in " The Sphinx," a poem in marble, a proud 
interrogation flung into the high heavens by suffering man, 
defiantly demanding a solution of this " mystery of nights 
and days." 

Dining together one day with this artist, who is as charming, 
refined, and original in his conversation as in his art, at the 
hospitable table of the great scientist, Lombroso, the con- 
versation turned on Bistolfi's increasing tendency towards 
symbolism, and Lombroso told him, half in fun and half in 
earnest, that if he would persist in putting such strong food 
before the public, he ought to accompany it with explanations 
calculated to help the weaker vessels. The result of this 
passing remark was a long letter he wrote to me about his 
art and ideas, which enables me to give the sculptor's 
interpretation of " The Sphinx " in his own words : — 

" Forgive me, I ought to have written to you ere this, and 
at the same time I sent you the photographs, but I have ever 

a strange and profound shrinking from re- 
The Sculptor's evoking from the depths of my soul, whence 

came and come dreams often unquiet and 
tormenting, which I strive to translate into our grey and cold 



120 Italy of the Italians 

material. And yet I quite understand that the artist himself 
should always comment on his works, especially when these 
have a tendency and significance which the crowd is not yet 
accustomed to decipher. Another reason for the reluctance 
which I feel in speaking of my works is the weariness they 
leave behind me, while it would be needful to come with 
fresh and living force to the task of translating justly and 
accurately the finished work of art into another medium 
and another material. But you will forgive the delay, the 
paternal scruples. . . . The original idea was to represent 
by a symbolical figure " La Morte " — Death — as we moderns 
regard it, who, if we do not weep with cruel fears of the hell- 
fire of the Padre Eterno, are yet disturbed and disquieted by 
the unimaginable thought of the infinite unknown. In 
expressing this idea almost unconsciously, certainly without 
premeditation, the figure of Death took the aspect of a Sphinx. 
Thus others began even then to call her, and thus I now call 
her myself. The monument is (or at least wishes to be) 
a sincere aspiration towards the immaculate purity, the calm, 
the harmony of the universe. It is true, in the statue, the 
hands, slightly contracted, still recall the sorrow of human 
desire. The head, instead, which is already wrapped in the 
azure, has no longer any expression of individual will. The 
eyes are void and profound like our nights, and the flowers, 
the flowers of death, living and contorted around the base 
in the guise of poppies and chrysanthemums, climb up grad- 
ually until they rise in the shape of lilies, till they grow 
transformed into those last rigid, lifeless, almost star-like 
flowers which touch the shoulders of the figure. The most 
grave, most insistent and most foolish objection made to 
this monument is that the figure lacks form, that the head is 
small compared to the rest, that the body is lost under the 
folds of the drapery. Now, if there is anything really good 
and successful in this work, it is that I have had the courage 
to create a form adapted to the conception. Good heavens ! 



Sculpture and Architecture 121 

it is so easy to make arms and long or short legs according to 
the sacred canons of sculpture ! " 

It was natural that this work aroused ardent discussion. 
Here was no longer the conventional tombstone preaching the 
conventional views. It haunts the memory 
AN D^^'^hT ^^^® ^ strophe of Omar Khayyam, whose 
' doctrines it recalls. The Sphinx inaugurates 
a new departure in tombstone art, which, rightly understood, 
should be either simply decorative or render symbolically the 
deeds, thoughts or life of those it commemorates. No wonder 
that after the Sphinx Bistolfi received many commissions 
to execute grave-stones. His own favourite is that erected 
to the memory of Sebastiano Grandis, the engineer who, 
together with Grattoni and Sommeiller, projected and carried 
out the tunnelling of the Mont Cenis, the first of the sub- Alpine 
passages. 

The body of Grandis is represented as lying in a crypt, 

quarried out of the material he subjugated by his genius. 

His work is indicated by a very low bas-relief, 

Tombstone bas-reliefs of the kind Donatello loved and 

Sculpture. 

which Bistolfi has revived in Italian sculp- 
tured art, carved in one corner of the granite wall in which 
he reposes. It represents a group of workmen intent on 
carrying out the perforation of the famous tunnel. " The 
Beauty of Death " is Bistolfi's own name for this monument. 
One of his latest works is that designed for Segantini's tomb. 
"Truth" is his own name for this, that depicts a naked 
maiden issuing forth from a mountain's grip. Her head is 
still held in the torpid slumber of matter, but the torso is 
freed and shines forth radiant in the sun and daylight. Hereby 
he wishes to symbolise the soul of the mountain as Segantini 
evoked it and beheld it in his painted dreams. 

Bistolfi is sometimes reproached for his manner, which is 
frankly impressionist, but he handles this with such sobriety 
and aristocratic distinction that what becomes careless in his 
imitators is a merit in his own case; 

9— (2395) 



122 Italy of the Italians 

It is certainly curious that the revival of sculpture should 
have occurred in Piedmont, a province that was never artistic- 
ally eminent, amid that stern, strong and strenuous people 
living at the foot of the rugged Alps to which Italy also owes 
her political resurrection. But a city that like Turin has given 
birth to three such remarkable sculptors as Bistolfi, Canonica 
and Calandra, may indeed be proud of its sons. 

Calandra especially burst upon the world like to a dazzling 

meteor when he first exhibited his equestrian group of the 

Duke of Aosta, sometime King of Spain, at 

^'c i^^T^ °^ which he had worked silently, unostenta- 
tiously, uninterruptedly for ten years. 
Curiously enough this man, who was born in 1856, began life 
as a society butterfly, who, though he studied sculpture did 
so only for amusement, turning out portraits of fine ladies and 
other like trivialities. Suddenly he awoke to the banality 
of this existence and exiled himself into the Alps to study 
Nature and abandon himself to her influence. The results 
of this sojourn were a series of little statuettes of which 
" The Poacher " and " The Ploughman," now in the Roman 
Gallery of Modern Art, are perhaps the choicest in their rude 
masculine sincerity, epitomising a passing moment in the 
suggestive manner that Rodin has introduced into modern 
sculpture. 

Such smaller works were gradually preparing Calandra's 

hand for more important labours. As he chiselled at these 

his busy mind was maturing his individual 

A Projected conception as to statuary monuments, with 
Garibaldi. ^ result that has given him the first place as 
the leader in a much-needed revolt against 
conventional official memorials. A competition, opened for 
a record to Garibaldi in Milan in 1885, gave Calandra his first 
chance to put his views into concrete form. It was objected 
that his sketch, though it contained the prize, was rather 
a modelled picture than a piece of sculpture, a criticism 
which gratified its author, since it proved that the public 



Sculpture and Architecture 123 

had grasped that which he had desired to express, namely, 
that Garibaldi was essentially a picturesque subject and that 
rigid plasticity could not exactly render the full significance 
nor all the aspects of the Risorgimento epic. However, the 
projected statue was never erected. The commission was 
given instead to one of the numerous official stone-cutters 
who are allowed to deface the streets of Italy with their 
jejune productions. In this project Calandra had given 
shape to his conviction that a monument, especially an heroic 
monument, should not be composed, as is usually the case, 
of two distinct unities, the pedestal and the statue, accident- 
ally united by a mere material contact, but should be a vital 
and significant part each of the other, instinctively fused 
together intellectually and actually. 

It was this innovation that Calandra develops in his monu- 
ment to the late Duke of Aosta that at one bound brought 
him into view as the strongest sculptor now 
^D^krof Aosta^ possessed by Italy. The work is literally, not 
merely nominally, an apotheosis of Amedeo 
of Savoy, and through him of the whole dynasty of gallant, 
dashing warriors that have made that house a bye-word for 
courage and loyalty. It is not merely a plastic epic, but a 
plastic historical synthesis. At the same time, and here 
must be sought the feature that distinguishes it from the work 
of past centuries of a like character, it is entirely modern 
in its scientific conception of the relation in which, according 
to the latest theories, the individual stands to the mass. 
In older bas-reliefs a crowd is merely a mass that has but 
one voice and is swayed by the same impulses. Instead, in 
Calandra' s conception each figure on the storied base stands 
out from its fellow. They are so many different human beings 
raising so many isolated voices that swell the general chorus. 

The bronze equestrian statue itself rests upon a massive 
pedestal of rough-hewn granite. Prince Amedeo, represented 
as a young and dashing cavalier, is mounted upon a magnifi- 
cent steed. With rhythmic gesture the noble animal rears 



124 Italy of the Italians 

itself in a fine arch as it gallops through the air. Around the 
central pedestal there rushes a cavaleresque vision of the 
House of Savoy, concentrating themselves into groups in the 
four comers, of which each separate group condenses an 
historic epoch, from the founder of the family to Amedeo II 
in the act of distributing to his impoverished peasants, in lieu 
of the money which he, too, did not possess, broken bits of 
his Commander of the Annunziata golden chain, and, finally, 
his horses' hoofs firmly planted upon a Roman cippus, to 
Vittorio Emanuele, first King of United Italy, who is so placed 
that he looks straight across the nine centuries to his great 
forebear, Umberto Biancamano. 

This monument, standing amid the green shades of the 
Valentino Park, backed by the fresh green villa-dotted slopes 
that rise from the banks of the Po, tier upon tier, until they 
lose themselves among the snow-capped Alps, is as fortunate 
in its site as in its maker. Modern Italy may confidently 
hope that Calandra will enrich his land with other equally 
fine monuments that may cause us to forget and, if possible, 
forgive, the previous official abominations. 

Pietro Canonica's distinguishing feature is a remarkable 
sculptorial versatility and a capacity for suffusing the hardness 
of marble with a softness of sentiment. Born 
Pietro g^^ Turin in 1869, he was already as a boy 

attracted to the plastic art, but not till 1891 
did he turn out a work that met with success. This was his 
" Contrasts " — a bitterly-weeping little ballet girl whose hot 
tears are spoiling the starched stiffness of her skirts. His 
next success was made in Paris, after waiting in vain for recog- 
nition at home. It was called "After Taking the Vows," and 
represented a young novice clad in the habit that should 
separate her from the world for ever. The contrast between 
these rigid garments and the fresh childish face, to whom 
life was as yet a closed book, constituted the secret of its 
attraction. Indeed, Canonica possesses a special gift for the 
delineation of young faces. His children have a charm that 



Sculpture and Architecture 125 

recalls those of the Delia Robbia and of Donatello, with the 
addition of a more modern touch in the matter of expression 
arid sentiment. He is also very happy in his portrait busts, 
especially of men and of elderly women. His half-length of 
the Duchess of Genoa (Queen Margherita's mother) can 
worthily stand beside the best work of a like kind dating 
from the Renaissance. Religious themes also attract him, 
and he has modelled a Crucifix that, despite the trite nature 
of the theme, is original in the best sense of the word. Of 
late, too, he has tried his hand at sepulchral monuments, with 
happy results. 

Liguria can show some conventional sculptors, but none 
that rise above the average, excepting always Giulio 
Monteverde, a Genoese by birth though by 
^ScuMor*" residence a Roman. As he is nearly seventy 
he belongs, of course, to the older school, 
nevertheless some of his work is impressionist and modern in 
feeling, especially his most famous group, familiar in repro- 
ductions of all kinds, called " The Genius of Frankhn," in 
which the happy intuition that first applied electricity to the 
needs of common life is lauded in most felicitous and genial 
fashion, and also his " Jenner," in which honour is done 
to the discoverer of vaccination, an apparently inartistic 
theme handled with artistic and philanthropic intuition. 

Lombardy, unlike Piedmont, is not at this moment sculp- 
torially prominent, perhaps because its hard-working popula- 
tion is more absorbed in industrial than in 

o?Lombard" artistic pursuits. Among the Lombard 
sculptors a high place must be assigned to 
Quadrelli, with his symbolic and dainty figurines. Grace 
rather than strength is his keynote. 

A Lombard, too, by birth and residence, though a Russian 
by origin, is Paul Troubetzky, who has gathered laurels for 
his works even in critical Paris. He is above all else an 
observer of animal life which he renders with profound 
perception, not humanising his wild or tame beasts after the 



126 Italy of the Italians 

fashion of Landseer, but preserving their specific racial note. 

He is, further, a profound student of human physiognomy, 

rendering it in all its various shades and moods. And his 

methods of treatment are as individual as his themes. Casting 

overboard all traditional plastic formulas he has formed a 

formula of his own which combines impressionism with 

static force, a bizarre union that renders his output strangely 

attractive. He has of late been occupied in working at 

St. Petersburg on a commission from the Czar. 

A word must be given to Guiseppe Grandi, though he has 

passed from among the living, for he, too, had freed himself 

from academic conventionalism. To him are 

The Work of ^^g those two fine works the tourist beholds 
Guiseppe Grandi. . , r -m^-i i 

m the streets of Milan, the statue erected to 

the famous criminal reformer Beccaria, a man far ahead of 
his age, of whom Italy is justly proud, and the monument 
that commemorates the heroism of the Milanese in the so- 
called " Five Days " when they attacked and drove out the 
hated Austrian invader. What distinguishes his work, beside 
its inherent excellence, is the, nowadays rare, circumstance 
that he worked himself upon the marble without the aid 
of pointers or chisellers, and also that he himself cast his 
bronzes, a circumstance to which is attributed his too early 
death, as it is feared he caught a chill during this difficult 
operation. 

Whoever has visited the crowded alley-ways of Venice that 
cluster round the Central Post Office, cannot fail to remember 

the statue to Goldoni that stands in a tiny 
A t**t'*" open space and which is so happy, so comic 

in its conception and execution, so truly the 
portrait of that gay seventeenth-century dramatist and 
psychologist, that as we look at it we cannot help smiling 
with the merry Venetian at life's quips and cranks. This 
work is due to the chisel of Antonio del Zolto. He has not 
done much since of equal value, though a statue that repre- 
sents the great violinist, Tartini, in the act of sounding one of 



Sculpture and Architecture 1 27 

those stupendous passages that made him the wizard of his 
instrument, was boldly conceived though not quite as happily 
executed. The moment selected was, perhaps, too fugitive 
to be enshrined in immemorable marble. This work now 
stands at Pirano in Istria, the musician's birthplace. 

Besides these artists Venice has contributed little to modern 
sculpture, and, indeed, in the days of her glory she was ever 
stronger in painting than in the plastic arts. 

Rome has attracted within her walls many men not Romans 
by birth, among them the Sicilian Ettore Ximenes, a bold 

spirit, who besides having paid his obligatory 
'^^Scu'l toS"*" tribute to the national hero, Garibaldi, in the 

shape of a monument at Milan, is known 
throughout Italy by a really charming group called " School- 
fellows," inspired by Edmund de Amicis' book, " Cuore." 
In Rome, too, lives Filippo Cifariello, whose exquisitely fine 
and accurate modelling aroused fierce doubts and discussions 
on the exhibition of his male nude, " A Fakir," a number of 
critics asserting that it had been modelled over the living 
body, as such truth could not otherwise be achieved. Cifariello 
defended himself variantly from this charge and has since 
turned out many other masterpieces of close observation and 
secure technique. It is to be feared he will not be able 
to defend himself so successfully from the imputation he now 
lies under of having murdered his wife in an access of Southern 
passion and jealousy, and that a fine artist will thus be lost to 
Italy. 

Ernesto Biondi has also been the subject of popular dis- 
cussion of late in connection with his statue group contracted 

for by the Central Park Museum, which the 
Ernesto Biondi. American authorities refused to exhibit on 

the score of immorality, after having engaged 
to do so ; on which account, after the matter had dragged on 
for months, the sculptor brought a suit of damages against 
the authorities. This much- discussed group entitled 
" Saturnalia," reproduced in bronze, now stands in the 



128 Italy of the Italians 

Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. Objections may be raised 
to it on the score of technique, but its cleverness is indisput- 
able. The subject may not appeal to all as a matter of taste, 
but to accuse it of immorality is to judge it from a narrow 
provincial standpoint. Biondi's purpose was rather to con- 
vey a lesson ; his group reisembles that of the Dances of Death, 
The central idea inculcates that in the midst of revelry 
the great summons may come. A fine work of Biondi's 
has wandered to the Republic of Chile. 
^^ChSi* *° ^* perpetuates the civic virtues of the 
Statesmen. ^^o Chilians to whom, after liberating it 
from the Spanish yoke, the new era of peace 
and prosperity in that distant land is due. A European 
competition was invited and won by Biondi. The two 
statesmen are raised on high upon a quadrangular base of 
bronze, one sitting, and one standing. There is no inscription 
upon the monument. The life work and merits of the two 
legislators is expressed allegorically around a magnificent 
base rich in symbolic figures. Of these one of the finest 
is the Law, a noble matron enveloped in an ample mantle 
holding in her hand the Civil Code that was substituted for 
the ferocious Spanish legislation. Felicitous, too, is the figure 
that adumbrates Primary Education, rendered in the person 
of a mother who by the mere words that spring from her heart 
gives the first elements of instruction to her children. 

It is doubly deplorable that the modern monuments of 
Italy should be so trivial, seeing that there are Italians still 
living who can erect worthier memorials than those upraised 
by official decree. 

It is too early to judge of the national monument that is 
being placed in Rome to Victor Emmanuel. Lack of funds, 
the death of the original designer, squabbles 
National among the workers, have delayed its corn- 
Monument to 1 X- XT- 1- • A. X- -J. X- 

Victor Emmanuel. Pis^ion, though m the meantime its erection 

has unfortunately necessitated the demolition 

of some picturesque and venerable landmarks, and it seems 



Sculpture and Architecture 129 

more than doubtful if what is about to replace them will 
prove a sufficiently artistic compensation. 

Speaking generally, the work of the modern Romans has 
much mental affinity with that of their forebears in a love of 
the florid, the extravagant, the ample, in an absence of 
sobriety, in a capacity for brilliance rather than for depth. 
I would not, however, that this sweeping judgment be accepted 
as lacking in exceptions, among which spring to my memory 
the graceful little terra-cottas of Constantino Barbella, true 
to life, and sober and large in conception, if small in execution. 
As in painting, so in sculpture, modern Naples throbs with 
vitality. It would seem as though the sun-god, that ardent 

lover of the sea-washed town, had endowed 
^^^ Na ks"*^^ °^ ^^^ inhabitants with a special power of 

plastic expression. For in all matters per- 
taining to handicraft the Neapolitans possess an almost fatal 
facility, often tempting them to sacrifice real study to mo- 
mentary effect. This has notably been the case with recent 
Neapolitan sculptors who, in their desire to attain to some- 
thing new, in their perfectly legitimate aim to emancipate 
themselves from rigid and fossilized tradition, have somewhat 
forgotten the exigencies of their material and the limitations 
imposed upon them by stone. The result has been a form of 
sculpture that degenerates into impossible vagaries, that 
treads too closely in the footprints of painting and tries to 
ignore the barriers that separate the different artistic faculties. 
An artist who has found the happy mean between spent 
and frigid classicism and modern naturalism is Francesco 

Jerace, who is in the last sense of the word 
A Typical ^ typical modern Italian sculptor. Born 

amid the wild mountains of Calabria he stud- 
ied at the Naples Academy, where he carried off every prize. 
His first success was made with a genre sculpture entitled 
" Guappetiello," that untranslatable Neapolitan name for 
a boaster, for one who talks big, who gives himself airs of 
great courage, and who is at bottom a coward. Guappo is the 



130 Italy of the Italians 

term for the full-grown specimen of this class; Guappetiello his 
juvenile imitator. J erace' s " Guappetiello " is a life-sized 
Neapolitan street-boy who, cigar stump in mouth, thumbs 
thrust in the arm-holes of his waistcoat, struts forth with 
defiant impertinence to challenge the world. Another of his 
genre and youthful successes was " Cupid conquered and 
Clipt." Jerace's Cupid is not victor but vanquished : he lies 
stretched upon the ground helpless, with arms and legs bound 
and wings shorn. The scissors that did the deed lie beside 
him. His quiver, too, is empty, and the boy weeps over his 
impotence. It is a graceful statue both in idea and execution. 
Throughout all Jerace's sculpture runs the endeavour to 
demonstrate that the triumph of pure line may be coupled 

with the eloquence of expression. His 
^^of^ferac^*"^^ strongest and perhaps best work is to be 

found in his ideal busts and in his monuments, 
sepulchral and commemorative. Of these ideal busts most 
noteworthy is that entitled " Victa," by which name Jerace 
intends to refer to conquered Poland. It is a bust rather 
over life-size of a woman of heroic features and semi-Oriental 
type who looks down upon us with the proud disdain of one 
who though wounded to the death will not declare herself 
to be vanquished. She is in the full flower of womanhood, no 
half-developed maiden, and if there is a fault it is that the 
forms are so maturely ripe that they just skirt the voluptuous. 
Thus, under the proud chin there are lines that speak of 
middle-age and break the purity of contour, but this is done 
purposely. Jerace wishes to combine classic chastity with 
modern truthfulness, and he certainly succeeded here, as 
also in his head of " Ariadne," which runs the " Victa " close 
in popular favour. Here, too, we have to do with a statue 
of expression, that is to say, a typically modern work ; the 
ancients, of course, always sought to depict repose in their 
sculpture, and even that most bereaved among women, 
Niobe, presents to us in her marble form only a face of serene 
resignation. 



Sculpture and Architecture 131 

A felicitous symbolism distinguishes Jerace's monuments, 
as, for example, in the elegant memoricil Bergamo has raised 
to Donizetti, where behind the seated composer floats a woman 
of ideal beauty who, unperceived by him, sounds on the lyre 
the music that he hears within his soul. The same central 
idea is repeated in Jerace's monument to Cimarosa, only 
instead of a Melpomene, who was in keeping with the romantic 
melodiousness of Donizetti, he substituted an alert little 
Cupid as more representative of the class of harmony that 
streamed from the gay heart of the elder musician. 

In all his monuments Jerace has tried to break with the 
convention that elevates the subject upon some high pedestal 
after the manner of a Simon Stylites. He strives to give a 
character of verisimilitude to pose and environment and 
depicts his Beethoven, for instance, as leaning against 
a rough-hewn rock and gazing with unseeing eyes far out into 
the infinite. 

Of late Jerace has been busy making bas-relief decorations 
for the Cathedral of Naples and Reggio, and here again he 
demonstrates his versatile capacity. An indefatigable worker 
and still in the full vigour of his manhood, the art world may 
look for many more manifestations of his craft. 

This remark, alas ! does not apply to the most original 
if not the strongest of Naples' sculptors to whose plastic 
efforts and line drawings a whole room was 
Gemitr recently dedicated at the Venice Exhibition. 
Vincenzo Gemito is lost to art from the cloud- 
ing of his brain and now leads an existence of retirement and 
isolation between the four walls of his modest Neapolitan 
home. 

A foundling adopted by a poor artizan family, Vincenzo 
Gemito received no regular, education, and at an early age 
had to fend for himself, following many trades, among these 
one as studio boy to a sculptor. This awoke his love for 
plastic art, and he modelled a bas-relief, of which his master 
took to himself the credit. How he managed to get instruction 



132 Italy of the Italians 

is a marvel, but it is a fact that at 16 he obtained a Roman 
scholarship. Soon after he modelled a statue called the 
" Young Gambler," which was bought by King Humbert, 
and this piece of deserved good luck laid the foundation of 
his success. Its delicate workmanship, its sure knowledge of 
anatomy, attracted admiration and wonder. 

In 1878 Gemito scored a great success in Paris with a statue 
called " A Little Fisherman." This, and the fact that he had 
become a protege of Meissonier's, led him to settle in the 
French capital, where for a while this bizarre, self-made 
artist became the sculptor a la mode. 

This Parisian sojourn marks the epoch of his greatest 
activity, in which portrait busts and imaginative statuettes 
were turned out by him with a rapidity that did not detract 
from their excellence. 

In the end, however, home-sickness gained the upper hand, 
and he returned to his native Naples. Here he obtained an 
order to model a complete table service for the King, a com- 
mission that filled him with pride, as well as a nervous fear 
that he could not meet the requirements. It was while 
engaged on the preliminary work that Gemito first showed 
signs of brain sickness, and after a while it was needful to 
keep him for several years in an asylum. He has now left 
this abode, but he still lives a life of strict seclusion and 
refuses to see any one outside his family, or hear news of the 
outer world. His intellect is quite clear at times, but his 
desire to work in sculpture has left him. It is nineteen years 
since he touched clay. He still speaks at moments of 
executing some capolavoro, but for the present he only draws 
and sketches works full of power and grace. 

Achille d'Orsi is also an independent artist, who has made 

a fair name for himself with his statues, " The Parasites " 

and " Thy Neighbour," both with a social- 

Achille d'Orsi. economic bias ; Vincenzo Alfani loves to 

depict the joys of motherhood ; Gargiuolo 

models graceful heads of women, girls and children. These 

and many others are all exponents of that personal and, so 



Sculpture and Architecture 133 

to speak, intimate note which is the hall-mark of contemporary 
Neapolitan art, reflecting the multi-coloured and yet uniform 
nature of its meridional population, and thereby rendering 
Neapolitan sculpture the most picturesque possessed by 
modern Italy. 

A personal note but of a very different nature pervades the 
work of the Tuscans. Despite the atrocities that defile the shop- 
windows of the tourist-haunted streets of 
Scul'Trs Florence, Tuscany can point with pride to a 
few really good artists, as, for example, the 
statues of the late Pio Fedi, whose celebrated group, " The 
Rape of Polyxena," adorns the Loggia dei Lanzi, and is held 
by half the sightseers as a classic work like its neighbours, 
or the groups of Dupr6, whose Cain and Abel occupy an 
honoured place in the Pitti Palace amid the productions of 
the greatest masters of all time. As of old, so to-day, grace, 
and measure and artistic sobriety distinguish the Tuscan 
productions. But among the living, two rise head and 
shoulders above their fellows and merit more than a passing 
word, and these are Domenico Trentacoste and Rinaldo 
Carnielo. 

By birth Trentacoste is really a Sicilian, but Florence is 

his home of study and election though for a while he resided 

in Paris. In his person he is a direct proof 

The Works of that there are still living in Italy, though 

Trentacoste. ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ between, spiritual descendants 

of those choice and rare artists who were the 

glory of the Renaissance. And, indeed, if any such artists, 

marching on with the changed intellectual spirit of the time, 

were still among us, they would inevitably have become what 

Trentacoste is to-day. From the outset he worked from 

the living model, his only masters the chef d'ceuvres of the 

Renaissance. After the manner of his prototypes he affects 

neither heroic art or large compositions, but chiefly inclines 

towards busts and single figures, and above all he loves to 

model the slender bodies of young girls on the threshold of 



134 Italy of the Italians 

physical development and of boys barely adolescent. Their 
still, almost sexless, shapes acquire a pathetic charm under 
his hands. Further, he constantly searches for psychological 
intensity of expression, though never must this expression 
become contorted or otherwise than beautiful, even if sad. 
His salient characteristics are a noble feeling for form, a rarely 
fine technique, a scrupulous anatomical exactitude, with an 
innate repugnance for what is vulgar or puerile. 

Trentacoste's works are mostly in private hands and largely 
in France, owned by persons who will not permit of their 
exhibition ; and he himself, singularly careless of his own 
creations, has not even taken the precaution of securing 
photographs. The Roman National Gallery, however, owns 
an exquisite and typical work. It is called " At the 
Fountain," and has all the savour of a Greek idyl, of a Theo- 
critan ode. It depicts the bust of an adolescent bearing an 
amphora on his shoulder from which the water gurgles. He is 
smiling the mysterious, half-mocking smile of fauns and other 
wild, half-conscious creatures of the woodland. The whole 
thing only consists of a head, a hand and a little piece of 
trunk, and yet what joyous vitality permeates the whole, 
both in mien and pose. 

Trentacoste's originality may be said to consist in seeking 
not merely traditional, conventional beauty, but the beauty 
concealed in every natural object, if faithfully studied. It 
is on this point that he joins hands with the classics, but also 
where he departs from them. No classical sculptor would 
have chosen to represent the boy of " Alia Fonte " with a 
physiognomy that diverges from all the pragmatic art canons. 
But by thus diverging, Trentacoste has given individuality 
to the lad's head, and in individuality the modern artist has 
learnt to see a higher beauty than mere set features afford. 

Ophelia is a theme that greatly attracts the artist. Of 
his various renderings the most charming is a head in high 
relief, floating upon the waves that lulled to rest Ophelia's 
saddened soul. He gives us here death in its poetic aspect, 



Sculpture and Architecture 135 

wherefore this head has about it the fragrance of a lotus- 
flower, upheld on the face of the waters. The originality 
of it recalls the strange sculpture fancies of Rodin. There is 
rare purity in the spent gaze of the head still wreathed in 
daisies, amid which sea-weeds have interlaced, the eyelashes 
are drawn aside and parted as rushing waters would part 
them, enhancing the sensation that Ophelia is still being 
drawn along by the hurrying stream, and even yet not at 
rest. 

The statue that first revealed Trentacoste to his country- 
men, for before he was known chiefly in Paris and London, 
was that entitled "The Disinherited." We are made to 
understand that this young girl — ^she is perhaps just fifteen — 
has been left an orphan, with no longer even a roof over her 
head, and her wretched condition is such that she is correctly 
represented as absolutely nude. With a natural movement 
the poor child, hungry, cold and naked as she is, deserted and 
alone, wraps her arms about her body to hide the only treasure 
left to her, her virginity. The harmony, the general lines, 
the expression of the sad little face, the whole pose of the 
forlorn damsel, who thus chastely seeks to hide the barely 
nascent charms of her body, are a happy trovata. To hide or 
partially hide his figures or their faces is, perhaps, too 
favourite a device of Trentacoste' s. 

Once when in his studio I remarked the figure of a young 
girl weeping over a broken pitcher. Her face was so covered 
with her arms, over which sweeps a wealth of hair, that it 
took time to discover that there was a face at all. Were the 
figure placed a little higher it could be perfectly seen in all its 
beauty, which is the greater reward for the difficulty in finding. 
I remarked this to Trentacoste, who indignantly repudiated 
my suggestion, saying that if people wished to see the face 
they could take the trouble to stoop down. The whole fiercely 
independent character of the man is concentrated in this 
reply. 

Indeed, it is by pose, by the forms taken by the body. 



136 Italy of the Italians 

quite as much as by the face, that Trentacoste seeks to express 
the feehngs of his figures. No wonder his countrymen name 
him " The Poet of Marble," for there is poetry hidden in all 
he touches. 

Of a very different stamp is Camielo, whose statue, " The 

Dying Mozart," is one of the ornaments of the Luxembourg. 

He might be termed " the poet of death." 

The Statues of j)gath has for him an overpowering attraction. 

He is a philosopher and a dreamer and the 

aphorism that sums up all his convictions is " the true note 

for a man who reflects is suffering," and regarding man, as 

he does, as a being born to suffer, this gives him a bias towards 

depicting death, the liberator from all woe. Yet Carnielo 

is not at war with society, poor or unhappy, as might be 

inferred ; he has no need to work for his bread, and his ideal 

has never to be sacrificed to making his works saleable. 

The " Dying Mozart " was carved when the artist was fresh 
from reading the life of the great musician. He was always 
and still is a great admirer of the " Nozze di Figaro " and 
" Don Giovanni," and thought the last moments of their 
author a subject worthy of statuary. This death of a genius 
is epic in its simplicity. 

The resignation of Mozart is not seen in yet another of his 
famous statues, " The Capuchin Monk." The sentiment of 
death differs in these two works of Carnielo's. The Capuchin 
is a young, vigorous monk, whose duty it is to bow his head 
and pray, but he cannot do so ; who desires by vocation 
and obedience to lift his soul to God, but who is torn by 
thoughts of the world which gnaw at his vitals and divert him 
from fulfilling his trust. As he feels his strength give way 
in this sharp tussle, he invokes death to free him from the 
torment. It is absolute defection to his vocation and at the 
same time the feeling of duty that unite in causing him thus 
to pray for peace. 

In " Tenax Vitae," an old man who has reached the last step 
of the ladder of existence, feels the ground giving way under 



Sculpture and Architecture 137 

his feet. Death, in the horrible form of a skeleton, has him 
in his hold, and to crush him the more, presses his skull on 
the head of the old man. Here also, the struggling figure 
is that of a strong, muscular man, not that of a deformed, 
worn-out being, and he is more assailed by the fear of eternal 
life and of the infinite Unknown than by the pain of leaving 
this world. Has he sins to do penance for ? Wicked actions 
to be pardoned ? Who can tell. Although double the age 
of the Capuchin monk, like him he is robust, yet he does not 
invoke but repulses death. To the former death is looked 
upon as a joy, a release, to the veteran it is a pursuer from 
whom he fain would flee. In the dying Mozart death is 
slowly, gently, taking possession of its victim. All three 
subjects are pervaded by the same and yet a different senti- 
ment, which only a real artist could understand and render 
with such perfection. 

That this poet of death should be attracted by the terrible 
mystery of Golgotha is no wonder. Hence he has long 
worked at a Deposition from the Cross which when completed 
will consist of many figures over life-size. His incessant 
self-criticism, his carelessness with regard to his work, his 
dissatisfaction between ideal and achievement, render him 
apparently a slow worker and have certainly hindered prolific 
achievement. But one thing is fixed : Carnielo is an artist 
who never stoops to make his work marketable, and whatever 
subject he takes in hand bears the imprint of the philosophy 
that pervades his thought and life. This is manifest even in 
a pretty series of statuettes representing every phase of Love, 
symbolised by the phases of the moon, one of his brightest, 
merriest works, though even here a tendency towards sadness 
predominates. In the end the woman is abandoned by Love. 
In fact these seven groups might be said to adumbrate the 
comedy of Love in all its phases. 

This independent artist only accepts such commissions 
as conform with his convictions. Thus, he gladly executed 
an order from the widow of Lord Hobart to model for her a 

10— (2393) 



138 Italy of the Italians 

group that should make graphic the horrors of war, Carnielo 
being as much opposed to that cruel destructive demon 
as the Peace Society itself. 

Yet other good sculptors has modern Florence to show, 

but none of such originality as the two I have dealt with 

at length, though a word in passing must 

Clemente g^jjj i^g given to Clemente Origo, who is 

making a reputation for himself with his 

equestrian statues and statuettes, admirable for refinement 

of execution and intimate comprehension of the equine soul. 

A retired cavalry officer, he naturally understands horses, 

and also all that pertains to the army, which accounts for the 

success he recently scored in Paris with his group, " A Piece 

of Artillery in Peril." 

From what I have said it will be seen that in Italy as 
elsewhere in Europe the number of men who dedicate their 
talents to sculpture is less than those who paint, but at 
the same time I hope I have also proved that Italy is not so 
devoid of real artists in stone as it is the fashion to assume. 
Nor can it fail to be noted that in all the artists mentioned 
that commercial element is absent which of recent years 
had made contemporary Italian sculptors a bye-word, and 
rendered difficult the way of the earnest and gifted artist. 

A branch of sculpture, that of wood-carving, is still an art 
in Italy, and masters in this craft are to be found in various 
towns, but particularly in Siena, Florence, 
Wood-Carving, and Pistoja. Greatest among these was 
Luigi Frullini, lately dead, whose cupids, 
children, fruit and flowers were of rare charm and excellence. 
Never did he attempt to force wood to perform the duties of 
marble or bronze, never did he forget his material, and inva- 
riably did he utilize it to the best advantage. Happily he 
has formed a school and has disciples, though none approach 
the master in skill and invention. Still their work is meritor- 
ious, and must not be confounded with the tasteful, clever, 



Sculpture and Architecture 139 

but rougher wood-carving that is turned out in such masses 
and which belongs to the domain of industrial art. 

In no branch of artistic expression is less originality 
shown than in that of architecture. Here even more than 

in other departments the Italians are held 
Architecture, in the bondage of their splendid past. No 

wonder, therefore, that her contemporary 
architects immerse themselves in the study of this past, and 
become lost in the process to modern demands. A few, 
however, have known how to bend and adapt the older 
splendid examples to latter-day needs and among these a high 
place must be accorded to Luca Beltrami and Camillo Boito, 
the brother of the musician. Milan can show some excellent 
specimens of their work. Both, also, are admirable restorers. 
It is to Beltrami that Milan owes the clever reconstruction 
of the famous Sforza Castle, now used as a museum to hold 
the records of Italy's political resurrection, the home of a 
quondam tyrant utilized to harbour the records of a newly 
acquired liberty. 

An excellent restorer, too, is Alfredo d'Andrade, one of the 
most erudite architects that Italy can boast, who has specially 

devoted his attention to the mediaeval castles 
^Re^torer^"* in which Northern Italy, and in particular 

the Valley of Aosta, is so rich. A feudal 
fortified mansion erected for the Turin Exhibition in 1884 
still remains as an ornament of the Valentino Park that skirts 
the banks of the Po, a synthesis of fifteenth-century Piedmont- 
ese art in every minutest particular, from the walls to the 
plates and dishes. 

What the vast monument planned long ago and begun 
but as yet far from complete that Rome is erecting to Vittorio 

Emanuele II. will prove, remains to be seen. 
^ConS^?im°^ The architect, Sacconi, who first designed it 

has died, and the whole matter now rests 
in the hands of a commission who constantly differ on minor 
and major points. Consequently when finished it will turn 



140 Italy of the Italians 

out an example of collectivism in art, and whatever good 
such a system may or may not effect in the social sphere 
it is scarcely to be anticipated that it will furnish good results 
in art, as by such means there must of necessity vanish that 
individual note that is the keystone of all true art. 

But the sanctuary of the Third Italy is still in the making, 
and it is not fair to criticize the incomplete. 



CHAPTER VI 

PLAYHOUSES, PLAYERS, AND PLAYS 

The Italians are essentially a theatre-going people. Of this 
fact everyone can convince himself no matter in what Italian 
town he may be staying, for rarely are the 
^^the* Drama*"*^ playhouses aught but crowded ; the play 
or the players must be poor indeed if they 
fail to attract. The Italian loves to spend his evening at the 
theatre, and he also likes that evening to be long, for the 
Italians, unlike the English, need little sleep, and four or five 
hours seem to suffice them. Therefore, the pieces are rarely 
allowed to be over until well past midnight, and in consequence 
although they seldom begin much before nine o'clock, the 
entre-actes are interminably long, permitting of exits during 
the waits and little gossips with friends in other parts of the 
house, or the discussion of a cup of coffee or a cigarette. 
" For," says the Italian, " if the play is over too early what 
am I to do with the rest of my evening ? " 

This love for the theatre, be it of prose or of music, has led 
to the result that every Italian city, no matter how small, 
has its theatre, where from time to time good artists are seen 
on the boards, and which at other seasons may be occupied 
by amateur dramatic companies, of the kind that are numerous 
in the Peninsula. 

This plethora of theatres dates, however, with few excep- 
tions from the eighteenth century. To arrive at this result 
it was needful to combat the interdict laid 

^^'^StaT""* by the Roman Church on playhouses and 
players. Not much more than one hundred 
years ago Cardinal Delfino, the Patriarch of Aquileja, bought 
up the theatre of Udine, then lately constructed and caused 
it to be razed because it was in his words, " a monument to 
pagan superstition," 



142 Italy of the Italians 

It may be wondered how some of the towns, and above all 
the smaller ones, could construct such fine, large edifices, 

theatres with a seating capacity generally 
Theatre jg^j. gj-eater than that of the largest London 

or Paris playhouses. The needful capital 
was usually found by the formation of a company, in which 
shares were taken at a fixed price. Every family who bought 
a certain amount of shares was entitled to a box which per- 
manently remained their property, and whence they could 
thus in perpetuity enjoy the spectacles without further 
expense, and whither they could also invite their friends free 
of charge. But in the course of time this faculty of inviting 
friends gratis came to be so abused that at last the theatres 
were often full of spectators who had not paid one halfpenny. 
In order to counteract this misapplication and to obtain some 
return for the ever increasing expense there was instituted 

that " Biglietto dTngresso " (entrance ticket), 
^^V'^k*^"*^* which is in use at all Italian theatres to this 

day, whether these have been primarily built 
on the company- system or no, and which so perplexes 
foreigners, who cannot understand that, besides paying for 
their seat, they still must pay for admission. These admission 
tickets if used alone allow of entrance to the pit only, but if 
anyone has friends in the house who have a box, armed with 
this ticket he has free access to join them. It is really a 
measure of self-defence, for as the theatres built on the above- 
named system have all their boxes pre-engaged in perpetuity, 
the managers were only able to sell the stalls (poltrone) and 
the reserved seats (posti distinti), and if the profits resulting 
from their sale were sufficient to cover outlay when the mount- 
ing was very simple, the illumination cheap and the preten- 
sions of artists and public far less than they are to-day, it is 
completely inadequate to meet the immense cost demanded 
by the mounting of a modern drama. And this, too, despite 
the fact that staging in Italy has not yet attained the 
extravagant proportions of England and America. 



Playhouses, Players, and Plays 143 

But for these same reasons, and also because the best 
Italian actors, thanks to the higher salaries paid abroad, 

are too often absent from their native land, 
^^Theah-es^ °^ touring in South America, Russia, or Egypt, 

these playhouses, above all in the smaller 
centres, are often closed, in some cases even for years at a time. 
If, however, some provincial theatres remain thus shut, there 
are an immense number where a select and varied repertory 
is performed by excellent artists and which are open at least for 
some months a year. Among this number are the Manzoni 
of Milan, the Pergola and Niccolini of Florence, the Costanzi 
of Rome, the Alfieri of Turin, the Sannazaro of Naples. At 
one or other of these, elegant and highly critical and cultured 
audiences judge all the " premieres " of Italian and foreign 
playwrights. 

Besides these aristocratic centres there also exist in the 
large cities a number of second-class theatres, frequented 

chiefly by the bureaucracy and the trading 
^^Thea^es'* class, theatres in which smoking is allowed 

and where the tragedies of Alfieri and the 
comedies of Goldoni are still played. Still the fact that 
smoking is permitted by no means stamps a theatre as second- 
class. This abuse is licensed in many a playhouse and goes 
on during the acting of even the greatest artists, such as the 
Duse or Zacconi. It must often be a trial to the actors, we 
should think, to have to speak into a house reeking with 
tobacco and clouded by smoke. 

The Italian theatre is altogether a curious institution and 
very different in all its customs from those of the rest of 

Europe. But it stands first in one respect, 
^If/Stin'^^ head and shoulders above all the rest of the 

world, and that is in the high quality of its 
acting. It is needful to say this here because the English public 
has formed erroneous judgments on this point owing to the 
fact that Salvini, Ernesto Rossi and Madame Ristori in the 
past, Eleanora Duse in the present, visited England with 



144 Italy of the Italians 

scratch companies of which they were the only stars, thus 
giving a false idea of Italian theatrical talent. 

The Italian theatre of to-day is a direct descendant of the 
so-called Commedie dell'arte, extremely artificial, stilted 

forms of dramatic composition which testified, 
theruan Drama.it i^ true, to the quick and ready wit of 

the Italians, but also to a puerile taste. 
These plays were all performed by actors in masks, after the 
manner of the classic drama and the modern Japanese, and 
in the greater number of cases the players were merely fur- 
nished with the plot, leaving the situations of the play and 
the dialogue to be supplied on the moment by the invention 
of the actors themselves. This outline was often of the 
roughest nature, much after the manner of modern drawing- 
room charades, but there were certain stock characters, such 
as the Old Man who is the butt of the tricks and deceptions 
of the others, an extravagant son, scampish servants and 
corrupt or saucy chambermaids. It was Goldoni who released 
the Italian theatre from this bondage and together with 
Moliere in France laid the foundations of the drama as it is 
understood in our day. " I had no rivals to combat," Goldoni 
himself tells in his autobiography, " I had only prejudices 
to surmount." 

But some survivals of the older methods can be traced in 
the curious and unique organisation of the Italian theatrical 

world. As I have shown, the theatre buildings 
O^a^zat'on themselves either belong to the cities or to 

private persons, but none of these have 
permanent managers and a permanent company. On the 
other hand, there exist a number of managers who direct 
companies of recognised artists and own plays, scenery and 
other requisites. Between the proprietors of the buildings 
and the manager of the troupe arrangements are made on the 
basis that the company may play for a specified time in the 
playhouses in return for a percentage of the proceeds. Of 
such playhouses there are over 600 in the Peninsula, 



Playhouses, Players, and Plays 145 

The Italian theatrical year still follows the traditional 
players' Calendar of Goldoni's day. This theatrical year 

(I'anno comico) begins on Ash Wednesday, 
The Theatrical whenever that date may fall. From that 

day all theatrical engagements date. Then 
follows what is known as the first season, i.e., Lent (la quare- 
sima), which lasts till Easter. Then comes Spring (la prima- 
vera), that lasts till the end of May. June is reckoned as 
a season all by itself. From July till the end of September 
occasional representations are given. But the most important 
seasons are the autumn (I'autunno) that ends on Christmas 
Eve, and the Carnival season that begins on Christmas Day 
and ends on Shrove Tuesday. Consequently the routine 

of a first-class Italian company may follow 

Routine of a guch lines as these : Lent in Naples, Spring 

Company. ^^ Rome, June in Florence, where the roof 

is taken off the theatre and the heat mitigated, 
vacations in the summer, varied perhaps by occasional 
performances at watering-places or health resorts, the autumn 
in Genoa, the Carnival in Milan. In many of these cities 
the Municipality pay the manager a considerable subvention, 
or guarantee, as they are ambitious that good plays should 
be performed in their towns. In this way the eight or ten 
first-rate companies into which Italian actors are grouped 
perform a continual zig-zag throughout the length and breadth 
of the Peninsula, with the result that in the course of one year 
or at most two the entire public has a chance of seeing the best 
and newest plays and the best artists without moving from 
their homes. 

And in the same way the towns of second and third rank 
are catered for by companies of second and third-rate merit. 
By this curious arrangement, which is fatiguing and costly 
to the actors, the public is certainly the gainer, for it can see 
and hear all the novelties, and its critical acumen and artistic 
perception is cultivated. Hence the Italian theatrical public 
is more critical, more appreciative, but also more intolerant 



146 Italy of the Italians 

than any in Europe. And this does not spring wholly from 
their more emotional temperament but really from the fact 
that their taste has been educated and refined. These wan- 
dering appearances are also beneficial to the actors. No man 
or woman can grow fat and lazy in the approval of their 
fellow citizens. They must be always on the alert, for what 
pleases in Rome by no means necessarily pleases at Milan, and 
one Italian town rather prefers not to endorse the verdict of 
another. For the old rivalries between the cities are by no 
means extinct and therefore no local celebrities but only 
genuine celebrities win a name. 

Of course, the system has its disadvantages also. Among 
these, as regards the actors, is the expense of constant change 
of abode, for they have to pay their own 
^"Ad ^"^'"^ ^°^ travelling and housing expenses ; this is 
rendered yet more onerous from the fact 
that salaries are exceedingly small. Nor can they be other- 
wise, seeing the low prices charged for admission and seats. 
At the arena in Florence, for example, where the best plays 
and players can be seen, a stall and entrance now costs two 
francs, but until three years ago it only cost 1 f . 50 c. And 
this is no exception but rather the rule. Under these circum- 
stances of course the staging suffers. First, there are not 
funds sufficient to meet the extravagant modern requirements, 
moreover if a manager must be always on the road and has to 
carry with him all his paraphernalia it is obvious that he will 
reduce these to the slenderest and most indispensable propor- 
tions. In many large cities one or other of the leading 
furniture firms will lend some of their goods as a sort of 
advertisement of their wares. D'Annunzio has introduced 
reforms in this respect also. He mounts his plays with great 
care and luxury, but it needs a deep purse and a big success 
to follow his example. For it must be remembered, in justice 
to Italian theatrical managers, that they have no long runs 
to compensate them for their outlay. A play is rarely 
repeated more than two nights consecutively, is perhaps only 



Playhouses, Players, and Plays 147 

played four or five times during the company's stay 
in a town. The ItaHan theatre pubHc demands and expects 
incessant variety, for they will go to the play night after night 
and hence require novelty of spectacle. 

The composition of the companies in a measure helps to the 
excellence of the ensemble, though it also leads to restrictions. 

For these companies are still composed after 
Compo«tion_jjf ^ given recipe, such as prevailed in the 

Commedie dell'arte. First in order comes 
the prima attrice (leading lady) and the primo attore (leading 
actor) who have the right of monopolising the principal parts 
in a play. Then comes the leading young lady, and leading 
young man, who play the roles of the lovers, provided these 
r61es are not the chief in the piece, in which case they fall 
to the first-named actors. Further, there are the " mother " 
and the character actor or heavy gentleman, but to the latter 
only elderly parts fall. Younger rdles are absorbed by the 
primo generico (light comedy man) and the seconda donna 
(second lady), who is his pendant. An important personage 
is the " brillante," who is something between a smart come- 
dian, a heavy utility, and a character actor, to whom fall all 
slightly comic rdles that do not represent elderly men, in which 
case they belong of rights to the character actor. For some 
plays a " brillante " is needed for the leading male part, but 
he cannot assume it without the express assent of the leading 
actor, whose right it is, so fixed is hierarchical precedence in 
the histrionic world. Besides these chief actors the company 
counts some 20 or so persons male and female who are engaged 
under the collective title of generici (general), and who have 
to fill all the remaining r61es. Walking ladies and gentlemen 
are engaged in each town as required, since carrying them 
around would add too greatly to the expenses of travel. 
The prompter unfortunately still holds an important place, 
and his ugly box, breaking the line of the footlights, is not 
only an eyesore but a real interruption to enjoyment for he 



148 Italy of the Italians 

prompts so loudly that it needs some little oral practice not 
to hear him rather than the actors. 

The theatres, however, in which the soul of the Italian 
people can best be studied, are the popular houses of which 
there are an untold number. Here are 
Houses ^^^ usually performed, evening after evening, the 
most blood-curdling tragedies and dramas 
in which every act is adorned with at least two or three deaths 
or murders. The public that frequents these resorts becomes 
so hardened to this species of theatrical criminology that 
they would return home quite dissatisfied if they had not 
seen seven or eight deaths occur upon the stage. As a rule 
these popular theatres paste up huge coloured advertisements 
of a highly spiced and dramatic character at the street corners, 
announcing what they will play that evening. The title 
as a rule is exceedingly high flown, and so crowded with 
adjectives and sesquipedalian words that it takes up three 
or four lines of the broad sheet, while the picture reproduces 
in glaring colours a salient scene from the drama. This serves 
to acquaint those who cannot read (and among the populace 
there are still unfortunately many such) with the nature of 
the play, and that there will be presented at least one death 
or one assassination. The plays thus presented are generally 
put together by the manager and are often a hotch-potch of 
some popular crimes. 

There are, however, other folk- theatres to which the entrance 

fee is only thirty or fifty centimes where nothing but classic 

plays are performed. On these stages the 

o?^cSssk Hays Shakespearian repertory is one of the chief 

* attractions, but Sophocles, Aeschylus and 

Euripides also draw large audiences. Hence it need arouse 

no surprise if some day, walking through the streets, say, of 

Rome or Florence, we may hear a workman in shirt-sleeves 

or a coster pushing a barrow, repeating to himself Hamlet's 

" To be or not to be," or some speech of Othello's or 

phrase of Lady Macbeth's, naturally spoken in Roman or 



Playhouses^ Players, and Plays 149 

Tuscan dialect, and with certain additions or changes accord- 
ing to the speaker's memory or artistic taste. It is most 
amusing at these representations to note the costumes worn 
by the actors. Once 1 saw Hamlet dressed in a velvet shoot- 
ing suit, modified for the occasion, which he had borrowed 
from one of the audience, who in return was admitted free of 
charge. On another occasion the helmets of the Roman 
soldiers had a suspicious resemblance to kitchen saucepans, 
while their paste-board armour showed too evident signs of 
wear and presented many transparencies. 

Yet a third species of popular theatre is that of the marion- 
ettes, so characteristic, so full of national and local colour 
that it would merit a chapter all to itself. 

M tt ^^ these miniature stages, often placed inside 

the larger proscenium, by the aid of armour 
and swords of tin, and precious stones of glass, often with no 
other illuminant than a petroleum lamp, are put on all the 
epic and heroic tales of mediaeval chivalry, the Knights of the 
Round Table, the valiant deeds of Arthur, Charlemagne, and 
Roland. Here are enacted popular versions not only of 
Tasso' S.Jerusalem and Ariosto's Orlando, which are after all 
Italian classics, but scenes from the Spanish " Cid," the Iliad 
and the Odyssey. The Paladins of France in their shining 
armour are ever the popular favourites, and wagers are laid 
upon the results of their doughty deeds, their actions are 
spoken of as though they were those of living men. Applause 
greets their appearance and their acts, but even more thunder- 
ing hand-clapping is given to the pigmy who kills a giant or 
a fiery dragon. It is hugely comic to see these wooden puppets 
attempt a bow of acknowledgment. It is wonderful on the 
other hand how life-like and real their movements are made 
to appear, with what skill and dexterity the managers of such 
marionettes work their wires or strings from behind the mimic 
scenes. There is none of the clumsiness and rudeness of our 
Punch and Judy shows, shows that are a direct derivation 
from these Italian puppets. Often in these theatres one 



150 Italy of the Italians 

historic or legendary theme will be continued for months and 
the interest of the public is maintained from night to night 
by the same devices as are employed by fashionable novelists 
whose works appear in newspaper feuilletons. It is in Sicily 
and in the Neapolitan provinces that theatres of this class 
are seen at their best, and incredible though it sounds, these 
spectacles sometimes lead to rustic duels and deeds of blood, 
that occur between one act and another outside the little 
playhouse, the only cause being, perhaps, that one man has 
asserted that Roland after he has grown mad never recovers, 
while another sustains a contrary opinion. 

So much for the playhouses. Now for the players. What- 
ever the theatres in Italy lose in spectacular effects from the 

poverty of companies, from antiquated 
The Players, methods, it is all more than compensated for 

by the excellence of the acting. Those who 
visit Italy without frequenting the theatres little realize how 
great is the artistic treat they miss. No matter even if they 
do not understand the speech. The manner, the presentation 
is so compelling, it will and must leave some impression. 
And in many cases plays are performed which are already 
known in translation or are translations of French, German, 
or English dramas. Who would credit it, for example, that 
" Charley's Aunt," that typically and essentially English 
play, is even more comic in its Italian than in its English 
dress ? 

The modernization of the Italian theatre, like all else in 
modem Italy, was connected with the national movement. 

The first impetus was given by the actor- 
oT°thf Thtatie "manager and patriot, Gustavo Modena, the 

teacher of Salvini and Rossi, and his work 
was continued by Bellotti-Bon, whose tragic suicide in 1883 
was universally deplored. It was these two men who strove 
in the dramatic domain to arouse the slumbering capacities 
of their nation. Freedom they contended was a needful 
condition for the development of art and they utilized their 



Playhouses^ Players, and Plays 151 

wandering artistic existence to spread patriotic ideas. Only 
by a fluke did Bellotti-Bon escape being shot by the Austrians 
when, for example, one evening in the middle of a play he 
pulled out of his pocket, in lieu of his handkerchief, as though 
by mistake, the forbidden Italian flag. Of course, thunder- 
ing applause greeted the white, red and green colours. When 
Italy went into the field against the hated Austrians he left 
the stage and fought for his fatherland, only returning to the 
boards after the luckless battle of Novara in 1849, when the 
army of Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, the father of Victor 
Emmanuel, was utterly routed by the Austrian troops. 
BeUotti-Bon's programme ran " We must first improve 

ourselves, then art, and then the public." 
^"Act?n * *** It was he who, following in the footsteps of 

Modena, discovered and trained all the emi- 
nent actors who during the last half-century have honoured 
the Italian stage. The Duse, who alone is well known 
abroad, is no isolated miraculous phenomenon, as foreigners 
suppose; she is the legitimate outcome and zenith of a system. 
And that system is quite unlike the French. In France 
actors are trained to be artistic, there are certain stage con- 
ventions that must ever be observed, the theatre is no exact 
reflex of real life. The Italian school, on the other hand, as 
re-created by Bellotti-Bon, strives after perfect naturalism, 
each actor is encouraged to reproduce the playwright's 
characters through the alembic of his own temperament, 
which must not be overlaid. For this cause the Duse, for 
instance, will often refuse to play a part which an outsider 
may think exactly suited to her. " I do not feel it," she will 
say, and if she does not feel it she cannot play it. The Italian 
actor is encouraged to speak, laugh and weep, to be tender 
or harsh just as he would in real life. They were not to 
represent such and such a character, they were really to be 
that person, to feel like they would feel, to put themselves 
into that character's place. In this way the human being 
is not absorbed in his part, but the part is incorporated with 



152 Italy of the Italians 

the human being, resulting in great naturalness and in the 
fact that Italian actors are human beings when on the stage 
and not mimes or puppets. 

Such is the fundamental principle that regulates the modern 

Italian stagecraft, a reversal in short of the system in vogue 

elsewhere, and consequently there is no 

_ J ^°.. declamation, no theatrical pose, indeed an 

absence of just what is usually meant by the 
term " theatrical," i.e., a schism between reality and counter- 
feit. Salvini was, of course, rather of the old school. His 
was the grand style, declamatory and rhetorical, more like 
the English Irving, his methods would now be called old- 
fashioned, but his splendid personality, his magnificent, rich 
and sonorous voice, his well-declaimed periods, permit him 
even now that he is an old man to fill the stage and hold his 
audience spellbound as of yore. 

In speaking of Italian histrionic artists it must ever be borne 

in mind that the Italians in general and those of the south in 

jj . particular, may be regarded as actors by 

Eloquence nature. Their easily-excited temperaments, 

and Dramatic their inclination towards expressive gesture 
xpression. language, their eager eloquence of speech, as 
well as a great inherent facility in the contraction of the 
muscles of their face, endow them with rare scenic qualities. 
And it is perchance owing to this natural disposition of the 
people that Italy has so many good actors. Nor do they 
require to go through a long training. Indeed, many of those 
best known to-day in the Peninsula have attained their high 
rank without special study, and nearly all have revealed 
themselves to the public by a curious chapter of accidents. 
Thus, for example, one evening some forty years ago a comedy 
was played in which a police sergeant had a part. This 
public official was always hissed in his role, which was dis- 
pleasing to the audience, but this night he was enthusiastically 
clapped. The author, amazed at this change of front, inquired 
who had interpreted the applauded personage. He was told 




thoto by 



Ae Mascht Carlo, Milan 



ERMETE ZACCONI 



Playhouses, Players, and Plays 153 

Ermete Novelli, and from that day the man who is now 
one of the best Italian actors, came rapidly to the front. 

Nor is it only Italy that acclaims him. I 
Ermete Novelli. was myself present a few years ago when he 

made his triumphal debut in Paris, and the 
enthusiasm he excited among that cultured, critical public was 
indescribable. He is certainly one of the most versatile 
and original, as well as the most amusing and ductile actor 
of our day. The public is entirely under his influence, laughing 
or weeping as he bids or leads. His clear, resounding and 
suggestive voice, his tall, pliable person, his mobile facial 
muscles, enable him to adapt himself to any personality. 
A bit of a philosopher, an artist at heart, he studies internal 
and external life with the sharp vision of a Democritus. 
There is a breeziness and elasticity about his personality 
that makes him attractive at first sight. No wonder he is 
nicknamed throughout the Peninsula il simpaticone (the most 
sympathetic). His comic "gag," his quick perception of the 
ludicrous, as well as his tender pathos, are his distinguishing 
characteristics. But mere words cannot describe him. That 
is the drawback of the actor's art. As Buffon phrases it, 
dramatic artists parlent au corps par le corps ; if we cannot 
see or hear them their art is as nothing. It is, therefore, 
impossible by verbal description to reproduce the impression 
of their personality. I can only draw attention here to some 
of the best and advise my readers if they come across them 
to go and see for themselves, 

Ermete Zacconi may also be said to incarnate the modern 
conscience. But in him there is no comic vein. Ibsen has 

been his master, he has studied modern 
Ermete Zacconi. pathology and psychology, with the result 

that his impersonations are penetrated with 
a realism that is at times almost too impressive. No one, 
for example, who has seen him act in Ibsen's " Ghosts " will 
ever forget the painful truthfulness of his rendering of the 
hero's slowly encroaching paralysis. His diseased methods 

II— (2395) 



154 Italy of the Italians 

of sitting and standing, the pathological movements of his 
feet and hands, are all rendered with perfect exactitude. 
And every character he assumes is thus subtly penetrated 
and vivified. 

Zacconi was a pupil of the powerful tragedian, Emanuel, 
whose premature death deprived the Italian stage of a fine 
Shakespearian scholar. From his master he has imbibed a 
culture of the serious, a love for the terrible and fearsome. 
Hence it is the Northern playwrights such as Ibsen, Grill- 
parzar, Tolstoi, Hauptmann, and Gorki who chiefly attract 
him, and whose paradoxes and transcendentalism, exotic 
plants on Italian soil, he has made not only palatable but 
acceptable to the younger generation of spectators. He has 
also tried as actor-manager to break down the hierarchical 
precedence of the Italian stage, not always suitable to modern 
plays, but so far with scant success. 

An actor of culture and ability, with a fine presence and a 
resonant voice is Gustavo Salvini, the son of the great 

Tommaso, who endeavours to emulate his 
Gustavo Salvini. celebrated sire by reviving the old romantic 

dramas. He has shown, however, of late 
that he can also interpret plays more in conformity with 
current taste. 

Fumagalli and Scarneo are other good tragedians. The 
latter is further distinguished by his literary ambition and 

daring innovations. Thus, recently he staged 
Good Lqj.^j Byron's romantic Mystery of " Cain," 

which even has never before been attempted 
on the English boards. And it is a testimony to the cultured 
perception of Italian audiences that this metaphysical poem 
was listened to with rapt attention and understanding by a 
crowded house. 

Oreste Calabresi is one of the finest character- actors of 
the younger school, who, without sacrificing anything that 
was excellent in the old styles, has adapted them to more 
modern forms. He shines above all in social comedies, 




I'hctj by 



Guigoni & Bcssi, Mil.in 



ELEKORA DUSE 



Playhouses, Players, and Plays 155 

for his humorous vein is pronounced. Together with other 
excellent actors and actresses, such as Irma Grammatica, 

Ruggeri, and Giovannini, I must not omit 
j,^"'*® • ^^^ ^^^ tactful comedian, Virgilio Talli, who is 

part-manager of the company called Talli- 
Grammatica-Calabresi, one of the strongest and best that can 
anywhere be found. This company, with which Eleonora 
Duse and Giacinta Pezzana play at times is the one that has 
so splendidly interpreted the plays of d'Annunzio, contributing 
largely to their scenic success. 

All the world now knows the name of Eleonora Duse, but 
it is not so very long ago since she was a pale, thin understudy, 

a pupil of Giacinta Pezzana, of whose artistic 
Eleonora Duse. powers the public knew nothing, and whom 

her own people, actors themselves, had 
pronounced devoid of talent. It was in a rather worthless 
piece by Alexander Dumas, fils, " La Princesse de Bagdad," 
that she first revealed her wonderful dramatic gifts. She was 
so irresistibly bewitching, so insinuatingly seductive in the 
scene of the second act in which she has to persuade a banker 
to give over to her a million in gold, that not only the banker, 
who was there for that purpose, but the whole of the public 
was subjugated. From that evening onward there no longer 
existed the pale, thin understudy. There had sprung into 
being Eleonora Duse. The profound weariness of voice and 
members, the almost dazed abandon, the slowly chiselled 
words that bum and bite like drops of corrosive acid on a 
metal plate, the serpentine attitudes that seem to repress 
the expression of the passion that is quivering within, only 
to burst forth at last with volcanic ardour, the intellectual 
physiognomy that for years disdained any artificial make-up, 
and a face which reflects all the shades of emotion, — all these 
gifts combined make of Eleonora Duse the supreme artist who 
embodies within herself the decadent, neurasthenic and 
acutely nervous soul of contemporary Latin society. In our 
day of fevered existences, when love is a convulsion that 



156 Italy of the Italians 

ends too often in suicide and murder, the serene quiet idealized 
histrionic methods had grown inadequate to represent the 
modern soul. This was understood by Eleonora Duse and 
gave an innovating impulsion to her art. And truly with her 
unrivalled power over the emotions she is at her grandest 
and most original in these parts in which she pourtrays the 
neurasthenic tumults of the female soul. 

That she can, however, play pure comedy when she likes 
she proves in Goldoni's " Locandiera," a piece with which she 
reaps triumphs in and outside of Italy. 

It goes without saying that Eleonora Duse has found a 
crowd of imitators among the younger Italian actresses, but 
none possess the secret of her agitated throes, 
Excellent ^ler undulating movements, or are able to 
communicate such tremors to their audiences. 
Still, superb though Eleonora Duse is, one would not wish 
her to found a school. It would be too limited in range, its 
notes too few. Happily, Italy can boast other excellent 
actresses, such as Virginia Reiter, a realist of full, rich voice 
and grand aspect, Teresa Mariani, admired for her fine inter- 
pretations, the sisters Irma and Emma Grammatica, of whom 
Emma especially promises to have a great future before her, 
for she has a penetrating comprehension and acts with feeling 
and skill equal to none but a few ; and last but by no means 
least Tina di Lorenzo, who conquers all hearts with her 
youthful charm and sprightly impersonations. 

It is wearisome to pile names upon names, especially in 
speaking of actors, for no art is more ephemeral, more personal 
than this. I can but repeat what I said above that on all 
ItaUan stages the level of acting is of a high quality and the 
reform of the theatre is likely to come from here. It will 
substitute the natural for the artificial, the spontaneous for 
the studied, psychological realism for stage artifice. 

Before closing this chapter a word must still be said of that 
original class of dramatic troupes of which a certain number 
exist in Italy called Dialect Companies, Of these almost 



Playhouses, Players, and Plays 157 

every province has one, usually directed by an able 
actor-manager. In these companies, instead 
C ^'*anf s °^ reciting in good ItaHan, the dialect of the 
province is employed, that dialect that is still 
so much spoken throughout the Peninsula, and which prevents 
the people from welding more quickly into a compact whole. 
Generally the plays chosen also reflect the province, but some- 
times an Italian play is translated into dialect. Of these 
dialect companies that sometimes tour through the Peninsula 
like the other associated actors, visiting the various cities, 
in which they are often but scantily understood, one of the 
most noted is that of the Milanese Edoardo Ferravilla. As 
a comic actor he is inimitable and makes even those laugh who 
do not understand him. And the Milanese dialect lends itself 
peculiarly well to biting jokes and caustic sarcasms. Good 
humour and joyfulness is the key-note of the Neapolitans, 
who are directed by Edoardo Scarpetta, whose quips and 
cranks are the talk of Naples. The Venetians, with their soft 
sibilant speech, still uphold the honour of their native Goldoni 
and are gentle and fluid like to their city. Strong, almost to 
savagery, on the other hand, and original to the last degree, 
are the Sicilians directed by Grasso, actor, manager and 
playwright all in one, whose pieces each and all are little bits 
of Sicilian life and manners transplanted bodily upon the stage. 
It is almost impossible with these Sicilians to credit that this 
is merely acting. It seems as though the fiery passions that 
boil under Etna's shade had been let loose and were made 
visible to our unaccustomed eyes. 

So much, too succinctly perhaps, concerning the playhouses 
and players. Now for the plays. 

With regard to its dramatic production the Italian theatre 

rather resembles a tree the branches of which have been 

lopped by a storm, but which in spring is 

Prod^tion ^^^ °^^^ more clothed in fresh and tender 

green, since the trunk had struck deep and 

solid roots. Until quite a few years ago dramatic production 



158 Italy of the Italians 

was at a low ebb. Only a few branches were left on the old 
trunk and these produced little fruit. The repertory of 
Goldoni, the sock and buskin tragedies of Alfieri, the pseudo- 
mediaevalism of Giacosa, the patriotic romanticism of Cava- 
lotti, no longer appealed to or completely satisfied the nervous 
spirit of modem society, weary of artificiality and of inflation. 
It was then that occurred the Northern invasion. Transla- 
tions of Ibsen, of Sudermann, of Tolstoi, of Maeterlinck, as 
well as the whole repertory of Sardou and an infinity of French 
playwrights, inundated the Italian stage and silenced or led 
astray her native writers. That it is no longer needful to 
see a foreign name upon the play-bill in order to attract, 
and that it is recognised that even among the older discarded 
plays there is good material, is due first and foremost to 
Gabriele d'Annunzio. Honour where honour is due. In 
the chapter devoted to Literature I have treated of his plays 
at length, so it is not needful to speak of them again. His 
influence has certainly been far-reaching in 
^"G^b"^ **^ more than one respect, both on and off the 
d'Annunzio. boards. He flashed upon the theatre at a 
moment when the foreign influence was at 
its height, with the noble aim of recalling the Italian stage 
to its best national traditions and replacing the journeyman 
phrases of the translator by the splendid Italian tongue. 
And he certainly succeeded. That d'Annunzio was not 
happy at first in the theatrical environment, that even now, 
when he has achieved world-wide success, it is permissible 
to doubt if he has real dramatic talent, is beside the mark. 
The fact remains that he revolutionized the modem Italian 
theatre. 

It is a curious fact, illuminating the Italian character, that 

while problem and philosophical plays are not specially liked 

by them, historical plays, such as a Northern 

Plavs^^ public pronounces dull, are in high favour. 

This taste originates, perhaps, in the classical 

traditions of the Italians. Appeals to antiquity find an echo 



Playhouses, Players, and Plays 159 

among every class of playgoers, and, curiously enough, this 
response is, if possible, keener in the lower than the upper 
social ranks, for the lower classes in Italy, save perhaps a 
section of very advanced Socialists, still feed upon the splendid 
records of their national story. It would seem as though for 
them the historical play, appealing to their love of country, 
was the lineal outcome of that tragedy, the dominant element 
in the Greek and Roman theatre, of which they consider 
themselves the natural heirs. Didactic plays, 

npopuar. ^^^^ laugh, they hiss, they talk, they call 
the curtain down. And an Italian public is the most critical 
and merciless in the world. Not even an old favourite can 
save a situation. As in music, they wiU not tolerate a false 
note, and without pity whistle a trembling debutante or 
a worn-out artist off the stage, so at the play they will not 
endure being sermonized, instructed, or bored. Only what 
bores other nations does not bore them, and vice versa. 
Thus, they will listen for hours, and with the most rapt atten- 
tion, to what a Northerner would call empty flights of rhetoric ; 
they will applaud to the echo interminable speeches of richly 
coloured words and rolling periods, regardless of the fact 
that when reduced to plain speech they contain few ideas, 
and are compounded chiefly of " words, idle words " ; 
sufficient if they are musically woven and tickle the sensitive 
and innately true ear of the Italian. Hence in part the great 
and overwhelming success achieved by Gabriele d'Annunzio, 
understood by few foreigners, to whom too much of the work 
of this undoubted genius seems " full of sound and fury, 
signifying nothing." 

In this connection it may be mentioned that plays in verse 
are favoured on the Italian stage, whose actors have that 
rare gift of knowing how to speak in rhythm without mouthing 
or affectations. 

Many and notable are the younger generation of play- 
wrights who have found a native note and no longer depend 



160 Italy of the Italians 

on inspiration or suggestion from beyond the Alps. 

Indeed, the nations beyond the Alps are now 
Plavwrfehts beginning to return the compliment and are 

rifling in the Italian camp. Among those who 
have thus penetrated beyond the borders of their native land, 
Roberto Bracco, the Neapolitan, is one of the most able. 
His plays always evoke thought and provoke discussion, 
for Italians who really love the theatre and understand it 
in the right way, do not merely go there to have eye and ear 

tickled. At first a disciple of the Northern 
Braa:'o° schools of Ibsen and Hauptmann, Bracco is 

a Southerner of the truest type who had fused 
northern and southern influences, with the curious result that, 
it may be said, his plays reveal a northern artistic tempera- 
ment while they are locally quite Neapolitan in spirit, for the 
scene of all Bracco' s plays is laid in Naples, and aU his person- 
ages present Neapolitan characteristics. Nevertheless, his 
plays are not really provincial ; he only utilises the characters 
he knows best in order to present a situation or mental dilemma 
of universal interest. He oscillates from farce to drama, 
a wonderful " zig-zag " (the word is his own definition of 
himself), revealing all his merits as a conscientious artist, 
a stern self-critic, indefatigable in his search after improve- 
ment. What is common to all his pieces is an exquisite 
diction and a lively and life-like dialogue, while his dramatic 
skill is proved when he sustains a three-act play with only 
three personages. Bracco, moreover, is young, and he 
certainly has not yet said his last dramatic word. 

A vigorous dramatic temperament is that of E. A. Butti, 
of whose novels I have already spoken in the Literature 

section. He began his playwright's career 
E^A^ Butti ^^^^ ^ drama entitled "Utopia," in which 

a father and daughter commit suicide when 
they feel that they have lost faith. This religious problem, 
this affirmation that all in this world cannot be explained by 
science and materialism, and that with the loss of faith is lost 



Playhouses, Players, and Plays 161 

the power of leading an ideal life, is the keynote of all his 
work. There always predominates what might be called 
the Hamlet problem, that is to say, atheism at war with faith, 
a future life with its promised glories contrasted with 
disappearance into the darkness of matter. 

Of course, in order to follow these plays a good knowledge 
of Italian is requisite. This is less needful with the comedies 

of Marco Praga, also an innovator, but less 
Marco Praga. given to subtle emotions. His comic and 

tragic situations can be apprehended by eye 
and gesture. He inclines to deal with the tragic and humorous 
sides of female existence, and this is specially marked in his 
" Mama " and " Moglie Ideale " (The Ideal Wife). Vigorous 
and vivacious in situations is Girolamo Rovetta, whose 

plays deal largely with the days when Italy 
R'^°'^t^° was in the making, the times of aspiration and 

struggle. His action is rapid, his speech 
full-blooded, his characters highly coloured, holding our 
attention even when on maturer reflection we feel or at least 
hope there is some exaggeration in his historical presentment. 
Light comedy writers are Lopez and Gianhino Antona 
Traversi, both men of brilliance and grace of touch. The 

latter especially made a notable success with 

VJ^trl ^^^ P^^^' " ^^ Mattina Dopo " (The Next 
Morning), where in a few scenes is depicted 
with courage and incisive strokes the corruption that reigns 
in the grand monde. This same purpose pervades the subtle 
little play, " II Braccialetto " (The Bracelet), in which this 
ornament, bought for the purpose of seduction, is purchased 
by the lady's husband from the desire to do a good stroke of 
business. The author's aim is to show how conjugal fidelity 
may be set aside for a mere bit of jewellery. Still more fierce 
in these respects are others of his pieces. He also scathes 
the rich bourgeoisie that aspires to be noble, and the aristocrat 
who abases himself to refurnish his strong box. Perhaps 



162 Italy of the Italians 

some of these productions would be judged as too free and 
outspoken in England, but their ultimate purpose is high. 

Of poetades Italy produces few. It prefers to import them 
ready-made from Paris. And such as they have are a little 
too heavy in touch. In the same way in acting those imported 
the movement is not sufficiently quick and brilliant to cover 
over the manifest absurdities, and the Italian language is also 
too classic to permit of its debasement into slang and 
double-edged phrases. 

Historical plays will perhaps be those that the foreigner 

can follow best, though they are not those in which the peculiar 

genius of the Italian writers is best seen. 

Recent j must still, however, mention as noteworthy 

Productions, productions of recent years the " Nero " of 
Arrigo Boito, the composer of " Mefistofele," 
a work in which the matricide is brought before us at the 
moment of his remorse, that in this histrionic nature took 
theatrical shape, the " Robespierre " of that subtle literary 
critic, Domenico Oliva, and the " Julius Caesar " of Enrico 
Corradini, one of the chief supporters of the neo-Imperialist 
movement in the Peninsula, — though of course Imperialism 
in this country takes a different form from that of England, 
and denotes rather a leaning towards autocracy and 
conservatism. 

Such is a bird's-eye view of players and plays. In both 
respects, but especially in the domain of plays, it may con- 
fidently be asserted that the century that began with a 
general decadence in these departments, has witnessed such 
a rehabilitation and revival that it may confidently be 
predicted that the new century will carry it to newer and 
greater glories. 



CHAPTER VII 

SCIENCE AND INVENTIONS 

In the domain of science Italy has ever been facile pHncefs. 

Do we not owe to her Galileo and Volta, Beccaria, and Cisal- 

pino, was it not an Italian, Amerigo Vespucci, 

Inventive ^^o first sighted America and gave the 

Italians. new-found continent its name ? The Roman 

dialect-poet, Pascarella, in a series of witty 

sonnets relating the discovery of America by Columbus, makes 

his peasant-narrator tell how the Italians are of such ready 

inventive power that the smallest trifle that others would 

overlook inspires them with a prolific idea. " An Italian," 

he says, " sees a man pull up a lamp, he thinks a minute and 

then, by Jove, he knows that the earth goes round, he thinks 

again and he invents the telescope. Yet another sees a frog 

that seems dead, he touches it with a spade and notices that 

it moves, and what does he do ? On another man it would 

have made no effect — an Italian invents electricity." 

There is really scant exaggeration in all this. Most of the 
older and newer inventions are due in the first instance to 
Italians, such as, for example, the telephone, the typewriter, 
incandescent lamps, and many other things, but unfortunately 
the poverty of the country and of the individual has usually 
hindered them from deriving the advantages from their 
inventions that have been reaped by others. 

More fortunate in this respect has been Guglielmo Marconi, 

whom all the world now knows. By his invention of wireless 

telegraphy, or rather by his application of a 

Wireless physical law, he has made an innovation of 

far-reaching moment, and one of which we 

are only just reaping the first-fruits. This young man, 

one of the great glories of modern Italy, is also in a measure 



164 Italy of the Italians 

an English glory, for though his father was an Italian and 
he was born at Bologna in 1875, his mother is English. It 
is from her, no doubt, he inherits his practical ability. It was 
at the University of Bologna that he prosecuted his studies, 
already then inclining towards physical science. When 
he quitted it he applied all his time and strength to the study 
of electricity, and it was only after great labour and endless 
experiments that he succeeded in rendering practicable his 
dream of transmitting messages without wires, a scheme 
that was considered a wild dream fifty years back. 

Yet another Italian of note, of whom we shall probably hear 
even more in the future, is Giuseppe Pino, of Vicenza. He has 

invented a boat that permits a descent into 
Inwntions ^^^ lowest depths of the sea, and thus is 

not only able to penetrate its mysteries but 
to raise the lost artistic and material treasures immersed for 
ages in the ocean. His first invention was a hydroscope, 
that is to say, a species of large telescope by means of which 
it is possible to see into the deepest sea depths. Nor is it 
needful to look into the instrument to behold the marvels 
it reveals. By a clever contrivance its range of vision can 
be reflected upon a sheet, so that in future it will be possible 
for the passengers of a ship sailing over the ocean to see 
with their own e5/es the wonders above which they are floating. 
In connection with this he has further constructed a species 
of submarine that he calls a " working boat," furnished with 
a pair of arms with which it can grapple and lift any object 
to bring it up to the surface. It is, of course, worked by a 
powerful internal electric motor. In shape it is not unlike 
a cannon ball, if a cannon ball had a short funnel and two 
long arms, and all around it are windows, closed with strong 
concave plate glasses out of which the submarine navigator 
can see all that is going on around him. 

It was in 1900 that Pino made his first experiments in the 
Ligurian waters ; they succeeded admirably and far surpassed 
the inventor's expectations. Pino was able to gather and 



Science and Inventions 165 

bring to the surface a great quantity of objects purposely 
thrown into the sea to test his invention, among them a cap- 
sized boat. The " Society for Raising the Treasures of the 
Deep " at once seized on this discovery and Pino had a boat 
of larger proportions built on purpose for them. An attempt, 
among others, is to be made to raise the gold that is thought 
to be on board the Spanish galleons sunk at the time of the 
Great Armada. 

Pino's own accounts of his submarine descents are of 
extreme interest, and truly he never makes one of his sub- 

aquean voyages without bringing back matter 

Account of his Qf moment and of scientific value. He tells 

Descents. ^^^ he has by this time become so accustomed 

to the bottom of the sea that he can describe 
it as minutely as the roads he traverses when he goes home 
every evening from his workshop. It is curious to learn that 
the bottom of the sea is covered with a mass that resembles 
ashes and that sand is rarely found. The sand ends at a 
certain depth, and hence Pino argues that at the depth where 
the sand and gravel cease, there ceases also the action of 
storms. Lower down the floor is muddy, but of a light kind 
of mud, such as is found in a street after a short shower of 
rain. On this account, that at the real ocean bottom tempests 
and submarine currents have no power, it is not true that 
foundered vessels become buried in subaqueous earth, as 
has until now been affirmed. Yet another popular assertion 
that the light of the sun cannot penetrate deeper into the sea 
than 85 metres has also been dispelled by Pino. He says 
that he has never yet gone to a depth at which the light 
failed him to see distinctly even the minutest objects or to 
read small print. And even on dark days, when the sun 
in the heavens is covered with clouds, there is always a 
sufficiency of light in the lowest deeps. 

Another curious fact that Pino emphasizes is the circum- 
stance that when down below in the ocean a man has no more 
sense of being submerged in water than we on the earth have 



166 Italy of the Italians 

of being bathed in air. Further, he has proved, after over 
200 descents to the sea's bottom, that the supposed physical 
law of the repulsion of the water, and that this force augments 
with the increased density of the water, is incorrect, for he 
never had to increase the weight of his boat in order to go 
lower. 

Pino waxes eloquent when speaking of the submarine flora. 
He says it recalls in wealth of colour and mass that of the 
Tropics. There are shrubs, too, down in these regions, and 
species of small trees about 3 metres high, not unlike firs and 
cypresses. As for the fish, they abound, but differ in species 
and size according to the different levels traversed. In the 
lowest regions are found the largest kinds, but rarely, almost 
never, are the fish that appertain to one region met with in 
another. 

Pino is enthusiastic concerning his discovery, and its 
bearing upon the future, where it will serve the interests 
both of pure science and of commerce. He even goes so far 
as to believe that in no very distant future an excursion to 
the sea depths of a hundred metres will become as common 
a form of sport as a trip in an automobile. This latter may 
be a dream, but it is a dream with a solid substratum of 
reality. 

While Pino has taken for his domain the ocean, Giovanni 
Schiaparelli has annexed the skies. He is the greatest living 
authority in aerography. It is to him, beside 
Aerography and Q^j^gj- important astronomical discoveries and 
observations that the world owes a topogra- 
phical map of the planet Mars. He first observed the strange 
canals that intersect that planet, and first noted, too, that at 
certain seasons of the year these are doubled. 

Indeed, Italy is rich both in able astronomers and in 
excellent observatories, not the least excellent among which 
is that attached to and financed by the Vatican. This 
Vatican Observatory has contributed to the classification and 
nomenclature of clouds by means of a photographic atlas. 



Science and Inventions 167 

The Italian's skill and delicacy of hand, his mathematical 

capacity and keen powers of observation assist him in the 

prosecution of all studies that require nicety of aptitude. 

Partly for this reason, and also largely no doubt because of 

the many volcanoes that exist in the land, Italy's scientists 

are the first in all that pertains to seismology 

Seismology and ^^^ vulcanism. For some reason unknown 
Vulcanism. 

it is the clergy who are chiefly active in these 

departments. Thus the Barnabite padre Bertelli has invented 
a tremometre that records the slightest earth tremors; another 
Barnabite father has amplified this into a photographic 
tremometre, that thus fixes its own records. Yet others have 
built instruments so delicate that they register earthquakes 
taking place at thousands of miles distant, and can even 
locate them long before the telegram arrives announcing the 
disaster. 

Foremost among these earthquake students stands Padre 
Alfani, of Florence, and in all that relates to volcanic lore 
Professor Mateucci, of Naples, he who so bravely remained 
at his post in the Observatory on the flanks of Vesuvius 
during the terrible eruption of the spring of 1906. 

From early times Italians have been intrepid travellers, 

and during the last decades they have not belied their fame. 

Discoveries of unknown territories in Africa 

Travels and ^^^ ^gjg^ ^^.g ^j^g ^q their enterprise and their 

Geofi^raphy. ^ 

powers of physical endurance, powers en- 
hanced beyond question by their frugal methods of living 
and their abstinence from, or moderation in, the drinking of 
spirituous liquors. 

No mean geographer and scientist is H.R.H. Luigi di Savoia, 

Duke of the Abruzzi, who in his voyages of discovery has 

emulated the great Italians of the fifteenth 

Voyages of the century, such as Marco Polo, Amerigo 

Abruzzi. Vespucci, and Christopher Columbus, planting 

the Italian flag on the Arctic Ice at 86" 33'' 

of latitude, this being the nearest point to the North Pole ever 



168 Italy of the Italians 

yet reached by any man. But before doing this the intrepid 
Prince, who is by profession a seaman, had also been the 
first to ascend Mount Elias in Alaska. 

It was in 1899 that the Duke left Archangel on board the 
Stella Polar e (Polar Star), a vessel he had bought in Norway, 

and which he had caused to be specially fitted 
Exoeditfo^n ^^^ adapted for an expedition into the polar 

regions. After no small difficulties the vessel 
reached the Bay of Teplitz in Prince Rudolf's Land, but here 
it was blockaded by ice floes, on which account the expedition 
decided to plant their tents and pass the winter at this spot. 
During this winter a sledge expedition was planned, but had 
to return to the camp after a fruitless errand, owing to the 
bad state of the ice, which made it perilous and well-nigh 
impossible to proceed further north. For six sunless months 
the expedition dwelt during the dark Arctic winter in these 
rude huts, seeing the vessel that was to reconduct them 
home slew to one side and hearing it crack and groan under 
the relentless pressure of the ice blocks. When the spring 
came at last a second sleigh expedition was organised under 
the command of Captain Cagin of the Royal Navy. The 
Duke, to his intense regret, could not join them, two of his 
fingers having been frozen during a reconnaissance made by 
him in the course of the winter. The sleigh expeditions were 
divided into three sections, of four men and six sleighs, to 
remain absent respectively twenty, forty, and sixty days. 
The second party returned to the camp in the appointed time, 
the third after 71 days, but of the first no news was ever more 
heard despite the constant and active searches carried on. 
It was the third party that attained to 0° 22" further north 
than the northernmost point touched by Nansen, thus beating 
the record, but it had to turn back for lack of victuals, and 
this return it seems proved far more fatiguing even than the 
journey out, and in the end to keep body and soul together 
they had to kill and eat the faithful dogs who had carried 
them so far in safety. 



Science and Inventions 169 

In 1901 the whole of the expedition, excepting the vanished 
three, returned to Italy, bringing with them a large quantity 
of new material in flora and fauna, and most careful scientific 
calculations made during the polar campaign. It is said that 
the Prince, who was largely assisted in the fitting out of this 
expedition by the generosity of his uncle, King Humbert, 
contemplates a return to the Arctic regions for further study 
and research. 

In the science of medicine and surgery, in all purely labora- 
tory work, Italy's repute stands high, and particularly in the 
matter of surgery, where again the skilful 
^ti?«^"** hand asserts itself. It is greatly to be 
deplored that the hygiene of the hospitals, 
and above all the nursing, is not up to the high level of the 
doctors' skill. Though often well equipped with instruments 
and operation rooms, in the matter of scrupulous cleanliness 
and scientific after-care of the patients a vast field of human 
activity still lies fallow. Though the days of Mrs. Gamp 
may be over, the science of nursing has not yet made headway 
in Italy. Nor is Italy as yet up to modern requirements in 
the matter of anaesthetics and pain-alleviators. Painless 
dentistry, for example, except such as is painless for the 
dentist, is as yet an unknown quantity. 

But where the Peninsula is far ahead is in all that pertains 

to electricity, and especially in the matter of electric traction. 

In this respect Italy's great riches in what 

Electricity and j^ ^ U^ -^ u j^j^ ^ „ (water) 

Magnetism. , . . , , , , , .,. , 

stand it m good stead and have been utilized 

with knowledge and rare audacity. In Italy it is common 
to even find insignificant villages electrically lighted, tele- 
phones are in great use, both in and between towns, and are 
relatively inexpensive, while the electric railways with their 
smooth, swift, dustless working furnish examples of what in 
the future will be the common and more agreeable methods 
of progression. 

In great part this is due to Antonio Pacinotti, professor at 

la— (2395) 



170 Italy of the Italians 

the University of Pisa. Endowed with that rare modesty 
which is so often found in Italy coupled with really eminent 
capacity, he has never put himself forward, and only quite 
recently have his scientific merits been recognised in the shape 
of a seat in the Senate. Yet without his discovery of the 
magnetic ring applied to the electric dynamo whereby it is 
possible to combine alternating currents so that they can 
also be used to produce rotation, the application of electricity 
as a cheap and simple motor force would not have been 
possible. So excellent are Italian electric machines that the 
first turbines required to work the waters of Niagara were 
made in Milan. Indeed, at the last meeting of the British 
Association the Italian superiority in all matters per- 
taining to electricity was generally acknowledged, particularly 
in the domain of hydro-electricity. For the uses of 
industry and for public and private illumination Italy 
disposes of over two-and-a-half millions of horse-power. 
One of the most wonderful of these plants is that of Vizzola- 
Ticino, in Lombardy. The mass of water which enters into 
the turbines represents over 25,000 horse power force. And 
this whole complicated and difficult enterprise was begun 
and completed in less than a twelvemonth. 

Now that the State has taken over the railways it has been 
decided that more trains shall be run by electricity, for the 
land is anxious to diminish the heavy coal bill it has to pay 
abroad, reckoned at about 150,000,000 francs annually. 

Dr. Silvanus Thompson, the President of the Electrical 
Society of London, put on record his opinion of Italian ability 
in this respect, when he stated that even after 
Italian Electric seeing the electric installation at Niagara or 
that of Rheinfelden or of Schaffhausen it will 
be seen on crossing the Alps and studying the Italian installa- 
tions that Italy can show things on these lines not to be seen 
elsewhere. The Italians, he goes on to say, have struck out 
lines of their own in place of slavishly copying other nations, 



Science and Inventions 171 

have solved the problems that confronted them in their own 
way, and applied them with courage and ability. 

In the domain of electricity Signor Pisiscelli Taggi has also 
distinguished himself with his invention of the Electric Post, 

which it is hoped may soon be universally 
g. J.^®p . applied. Four steel wires stretched on the 

top of iron poles some 15 or 20 metres in 
height form the supports upon which run the little waggons 
that carry the correspondence, and whose whirling speed 
attains some 400 kilometres an hour. The letter-boxes are 
placed at the base of the iron poles that are connected by 
electric lines with the central office. As soon as a letter is 
dropped into one of these boxes a little mechanism springs 
forward, pushing the letter under rollers that annul the 
postage stamp and impress upon the envelope the name of 
the city whence the letter departs, the date and hour of 
postage. Then as soon as the collecting vehicle arrives and 
stops at the extremity of the pole, the letter-box closes auto- 
matically and rises to the top of the pole, empties its contents 
into the little waggon, and returns to re-open for fresh contrir 
butions. Meanwhile the little waggon speeds on its path to 
empty yet other letter-boxes, and continues to act thus until 
it arrives at the central office where the correspondence is 
sorted and sent forward to its destination. 

The same inventor has patented a machine that automatic- 
ally stamps railway tickets, indicates the route to be covered, 
the price, the date, etc. It is called the Tessograph. 

Of great importance and capable of vast developments is 
the discovery by which it is possible to use the same wires for 

telegraphing and telephoning. This is due to 

The Telegraph Professor Edmondo Bruni and Signor Carlo 

Telephone. Turchi, both assistants at the Technical 

Institute of Ferrara. That it was possible 
to use the wires in this way is not entirely new. What is new 
and ingenious is the method invented by these men. The 



172 Italy of the Italians 

advantage and economy hereby realized, especially in time of 
war or when exploring, are obvious. 

Likely to prove of great importance and economy, too, in 
the wear and tear of ships is the recent invention of a young 
Florentine professor, Carlo del Lungo. He has built a 
machine that reduces the attrition between the water and the 
bulk of a vessel when in movement. This has already been 
tried with good results. 

Indeed, in looking over the published lists of patents 
accorded one would be led to suppose that all Italians are 

busy inventing something and never happier 
Important than when so doing. And this applies to 
InvenTion. every class, not only to trained scientists. 

Thus, an employ^ in the little station of 
Senigallia in the Marches, Calidio Baglioni, has just invented 
an instrument of great importance, that will hinder those 
terrible accidents caused by the collision of trains. Thanks 
to this apparatus not only is the presence of a train moving 
in an opposite direction over the same set of rails signalled, 
but by an ingenious automatic contrivance both trains are 
brought to a standstill. 

Yet another invention of great utility has been made by 
a workman in the railway works. It is called the oscillograph 
Pagnini, from the name of its inventor. Its purpose is to 
register graphically by means of diagrams, movements and 
impulses in a given sense. It consists of three pendulums 
attached to a writing pencil. The first pendulum registers 
transversal impulses, the second longitudinal, the third 
vertical. The whole apparatus is enclosed in a box that can 
easily be placed wherever desired. The practical purpose 
attained by this instrument is the measurement and calcula- 
tion of the oscillations of a beam or a metal bridge during the 
passage of a heavy truck or other weight, the elasticity of a 
common or railway carriage, the gradients of a road, 
the time employed by a vehicle or a locomotive to traverse 
a given distance, and so forth. 



Science and Inventions 173 

It may surprise many readers to learn that in the depart- 
ment of inventing and making of instruments of precision 
for military purposes Italy stands head and 

Military shoulders above the rest of the world. The 
Inventions. ^ ,. , ^ , , • t± 2.1. 

Italians were the first to recognise after the 

war of 1870 the supreme importance of mathematical accuracy 

in all artillery operations, and as early as 1885 invented for 

their own coast defences a Telemeter, which for years England 

tried hard to obtain, and for the secret of whose construction 

fabulous sums were offered. It is true that the inventors 

of Telemeters are legion, but only the Italian one is absolutely 

sure and exact. 

The Officina Galileo in Florence, where the scientific outfits 

for the Italian Army and Navy are made as well as those of 

many other armies and navies of the world, 
^O^tfit^*^ is in its line an almost unique institution. 

The Japanese frankly admit that to this 
scientific workshop directly and indirectly they largely owe 
their success in humiliating Russia. Already in 1885 when 
looking out for the best that Europe could offer they turned 
to the Ofiicina Galileo for help, and sent over officers to study 
and see the instruments that were there being made. And 
not only did they study them in theory but they executed 
them in practice, staying six full years as workmen in the 
place. When 302 Metre Hill was taken at Port Arthur, the 
hecatomb of lives that preceded its capture were sacrificed 
to the one aim of planting upon its summit a Stadiometer 
made in Florence, and when the place was thrown open to the 
war correspondents at the end of the siege, this instrument, 
that had enabled the Japanese to sink the Russian ships with 
deadly precision, was still found in situ. The Officina admits 
that they are now building even finer and more wonderful 
instruments, but of course these are State and military 
secrets. 

Obviously it is not possible within very narrow limits and 
in a purely popular work to detail all that Italy has done 



174 Italy of the Italians 

of recent years and is still doing in the domain of applied 

or theoretical Science. I must, therefore, content myself 

with mentioning but one more invention, this, however, one 

of the most interesting discoveries that has been made for 

many years past. As all astronomers know, many physicians 

have long been endeavouring to invent a so-called liquid lens. 

It is a mere priest of Perugia, Padre Agostino 

The Colzi Colzi, who has solved this apparently insoluble 
Helioscope. rcj^ 

problem. To him is due a telescopic eye-piece 

for studying the sun. The construction of the Colzi Helioscope 
is based on the principle of light-absorption between trans- 
parent substances (both liquid and solid) of varying densities. 
In the instrument a total reflecting prism of glass is cemented 
to a prism-shaped cell containing a liquid of nearly the same 
refractive index, thus insuring sufficient light-absorption to 
admit of the sun's image being received without the 
intervention of a dark shade. 

Rapid, and hence inadequate, though this bird's-eye survey 
must needs be, I trust enough has been said to demonstrate 
the modern Italian's fertility and ingenuity of invention and 
his scientific pre-eminence in certain departments. 



CHAPTER VIII 

PHILOSOPHY 

In the domains of philosophy, sociology, psychology, biology, 
and anthropology, Italy is specially prominent, and in all 
these departments the activity of the cultiva- 
It^an Studies ^^^^ evinces a practical rather than a theoreti- 
cal bias. Hence results of these studies prove 
useful in the spheres of daily life. And this despite the fact 
that with the late revival of Idealism, a small section of the 
community has shown an interest in Theosophy and analogous 
occult sciences. 

But idealism in Italy, owing to the native genius of the 

people, permits of a positive and realist strain, and hence 

metaphysics find scant favour among the 

Pragmatism followers of philosophic science. The younger 

generation inclines rather to the eminently 

sane and practical modern theory of Pragmatism or to the 

doctrines of Nietzsche. They have learnt the charitable 

moderation that makes them say with Zarathustua — 

" Enemy," ye shall say, but not " wicked one " ; " diseased 

one " ye shall say, but not " wretch " ; " fool " ye shall say, 

but not " sinner." 

If I were asked to name in what particular Italy stands 
to-day quite head and shoulders above her fellows, I should 
unhesitatingly say in the science of criminal 
AnSSgy. anthropology. This is an essentially Italian 
study, originating as early as 1320, when the 
King of the Two Sicilies decreed that no one should be per- 
mitted to practise medicine who had not studied anatomy 
for at least one year. After this, in the fourteenth century, 
we find men who devoted themselves to the study of skulls, 
thus laying the basis of the science of craniology. It was 



176 Italy of the Italians 

Italians, therefore, who initiated this science, and to Italy 
has been reserved the proud place of bringing it to its high 
development in the nineteenth century, even though the 
discoveries of Darwin, which gave it a fresh impetus, date 
from England. Beyond question, the Peninsula is at the 
head and front of all studies connected with criminal anthro- 
pology, and not of criminal anthropology only, but of all 
cognate sciences connected with crime and the criminal. 

To the Italians belongs the merit of reviving the study of 
a question with which philosophy, law, and medicine have 
always been occupied. It has been well remarked that 
whenever philosophical studies have free expansion, that 
whenever the desire to safeguard society, the spirit of tolera- 
tion, the methods of ameliorating the fate of the guilty, have 
been studied by thinkers, their conceptions have eventually 
conquered public opinion. It is to the glory of Italy, the land 
where Roman law, the foundation of modern law, was born, 
that it has again put into the crucible this problem of criminal- 
ity, and that it has proceeded to the study of this problem 
by the only true scientific method — namely, that of studying 
the psychology of criminals and their pathological abnormities. 
It will be its distinction to have declared against illusory 
enthusiasms, and to have founded a science which will 
contribute to the more efficacious protection of society. 

The recognised chief of this Italian school is Prof. Cesare 

Lombroso, of Turin, who has illustrated his theories by a 

number of remarkably able and interesting 

^Lombros?^ books. Until quite recently, to the world 
at large, the criminal figured as of the Bill 
Sykes type — and who, reading Oliver Twist, has not shrunk 
with horror on perusing the intimate drama of the ruffian's 
mind after the brutal murder of the faithful Nancy ? These 
things move us as the highest efforts of Dickens's imagination. 
But Bill Sykes was written in pre-scientific days. It is 
instructive to turn from him, and the class of melodramatic 
ruffians of whom he is but an example, to the criminals 



Philosophy 177 

dispassionately laid bare in mental, moral, and physical 
dissection by Lombroso and his fellow-workers. Certainly 
no such type as Bill Sykes, a projected image of the novelist's 
brain, coinciding with a highly-strung nervous system, is 
to be found in the gallery of habitual malefactors presented 
to us in the " Uomo Delinquente " and other books. Habitual 
malefactors, according to Italian students, are a class apart 
from other men, a distinct species of " genus homo sapiens " ; 
they must be judged by special standards, and must by no 
means be informed with the feelings of normal men. Herein 
consists the fundamental basis of the new science of criminal 
anthropology — a science which bids fair, in spite of conserva- 
tive and clerical opposition, and even of ignorant ridicule, to 
modify profoundly our present manner of considering and 
treating these enemies and pests of society. 

" Criminal anthropology," says Signor Sergi, one of the 

ablest exponents of the new system, " studies the delinquent 

in his natural place — that is to say, in the field 

SignoTsergi. °^ biology and pathology. But it does not 
for that reason put him outside the society 
in which his criminal manifestations occur, for it 
considers human society as a natural biological fact, outside 
of which man does not and cannot live. As normal anthro- 
pology, like other biological sciences, studies and observes 
the individual in his natural milieu, and finds that this milieu 
is double, physical and organic, and under this double aspect 
sees him develop and act, so criminal anthropology does the 
same with the very limited and specialized aim of discovering 
the nature and origin of the phenomenon of crime. Every 
phenomenon, however, remains inexplicable if it be examined 
alone ; the explanation is easier if it be studied in the complex 
of phenomena developed in the double physical and social 
milieu of which we have spoken." 

Words such as these, where we find embryology, physiology, 
anatomy, chemistry, and statistics, invoked as aids to the 
origin of crime, place us at the antipodes of ancient 



178 Italy of the Italians 

philosophies ; yet Lombroso and his school are in reality 
acting on the old-world notion embodied by Horace in his 

" Mens Sana in Corpora Sano." The delin- 
^s*^*d^^ °^ quent, they argue, acts abnormally. Acts being 

the visible results of functions performed by 
the brain and reflective nervous system, it follows that these 
functions are abnormal. The functions being abnormal, the 
organs which perform them must be either abnormal or 
troubled in their action by the habitual or accidental inter- 
ference of disturbing causes, for no normal organ acting under 
normal conditions can perform abnormal functions. The 
founders of this new school, therefore, dedicate themselves 
first of all to the study of the skull, brain, and nervous system 
of the criminals ; then make careful observations not only 
on other parts of the skeleton but on the living body ; the 
height, length, and proportion of the members, the total or 
partial development of each part ; the weight of the body, 
its muscular development, the deeper-seated organs, such as 
the heart, liver, kidneys, intestines ; the various functions 
which may directly or indirectly affect those of the brain, 
such as the circulation of the blood, digestion, and the dis- 
turbances which show themselves there, and in consequence 
of the general state of the organism as regards the balance 
of the vital functions ; sleep, sexual manifestations, normal 
or abnormal muscular force, and other factors besides. Every- 
thing indeed which concerns the morphology of the criminal 
is passed through the sieve of the severest scrutiny. This 
scrutiny reveals, as might be expected, various irregularities. 
The skull, for instance, presents anomalies of shape and size, 
being in a large percentage of cases abnormally small ; ano- 
malies indicative of regression and of arrested development ; 
anomalies in the position, shape, and closing of the sutures, 
" the doorways of the head " being invariably closed too early. 
Morphological irregularities are also found in the bones of the 
face, notably in those of the nose and lower jaw. The brain 
itself, say the investigators, shows unmistakable signs of a 



Philosophy 179 

degraded form, in the number and distribution of the cerebral 
convolutions, in the entire atrophy of some parts, in the 
extraordinary development of others. The shape and 
structure of the skull and brain, says Lombroso, connect 
criminals very closely with primitive man, and even with his 
animal ancestors. Criminals must be regarded either as 
forms belated in the race of development, or as physical 
and therefore also moral degradations — unavoidable, regret- 
table products of our civilization. In either case they form 
a distinct species, in need of scientific investigation. 

The action of the brain is, however, not only modified by 
its form and development, but also, in a very large number 
of cases, by pathological occurrences. Traces of old wounds, 
" some head blow not heeded in his youth," said Sir Kay of 
King Arthur's self-haemorrhages, affections of the investing 
membrane and of the blood-vessels are seldom wanting. In 
other words, the organ that controls and originates actions 
is in a morbid state. Further, the slight irregularities con- 
stantly verified in the branchings of the blood-vessels in the 
heart, liver, and other viscera cannot but conspire, by the 
abnormal functionings they occasion, toward the production 
of physiologically irregular organisms. 

Intimately connected with the physical conditions of the 
criminal are his psychic peculiarities. These consist chiefly 
in great instability of character, coupled with 
Ch^cter overwhelming development of some passion 
and the atrophy of some others. The criminal 
acts from impulse, although he often displays, as madmen do, 
a low cunning in finding means to carry out his impulse. 
He is intensely vain, priding himself on the number of crimes 
he has committed. He is, further, devoid of all remorse, 
fond of boasting of his evil deeds and of describing them in 
detail. Thus, Lombroso gives the reproduction of a photo- 
graph, in which three murderers who had assassinated one 
of their number caused themselves to be represented in the 



180 Italy of the Italians 

very act of committing their deadly deed, a photograph taken 
for the benefit of their less fortunate associates. 

This inordinate vanity is often in itself the primary cause 
of terrible crimes, especially in young men who have just 
attained puberty, an age observed to be especially fruitful 
in crimes of violence. The critical character of this period, 
even in well-balanced minds, is abundantly known ; little 
wonder, then, if it prove fatal to those whose constitutions 
urge them to extremes. It is noticed also that the criminal 
needs to lead a life full of noise. The necessity of orgies 

entailed by the irregularities of his feelings 
Cr^^*'n Is ^^ often the moving cause of some act of 

violence, such as robbery and assassination, 
calculated to procure the means of indulgence. His affections, 
too, are abnormal : he will assassinate father and mother, 
and yet be capable of making sacrifices for some companion 
in time of illness. This trait, however, occurs more often 
among women than men. We used to believe there was a 
species of honour among thieves, but Lombroso asserts that 
it is rare to find any consistent attempt to shield each other ; 
on the contrary, the almost physical need they feel of talking 
incessantly renders them specially inclined to mutual betrayal. 
The criminal is fond of tattooing himself, and so distinctive 
a mark of criminal tendencies is this held in Italy that tattooed 
recruits are looked on as likely to make bad soldiers ; and a 
private once spoke to Lombroso of tattooing as " convict 
habits." He presents, too, an extraordinary insensibility to 
pain, tattooing himself in places which even the Indians spare, 
and receiving or inflicting on himself the most terrible wounds 
without a murmur. 

He has a language of his own, employed even in cases where 
he would run no risk from using ordinary speech, and this still 
further isolates him from the rest of mankind. He has a 
writing of his own, too, made up of hieroglyphics and rough 
pictures. 
Such, briefly, is the Frankenstein, which the modern science 



Philosophy 181 

of criminal anthropology evokes ; an unbalanced being, a 
C n ect' pathological subject, whose illness takes a 

between Crime form which, hurtful to society, is defined as 
and Mental crime. For the facts collected by Lombroso 
erangemen . pjg^j,g beyond all doubt the intimate connec- 
tion which has so long been suspected to exist between crime 
and mental derangement. Madmen and criminals belong 
to the same family ; not in the sense of the vulgar and un- 
thinking expression that all criminals are mad, though every- 
day experience in the police courts puts it beyond doubt that 
many are actually deranged, but in the sense that both classes 
are in a similar pathological state, which manifests itself on 
the one hand in lunacy, on the other in crime. This position 
is rendered still stronger by the revelations of genealogical 
statistics, which reveal the heredity through long generations 
of criminal tendencies, as they do of insanity, and alternations 
of criminals and madmen, in the same or successive 
generations. 

Lombroso divides criminals into two great classes, the 

original or born delinquent, and the fortuitous offender, a 

man who becomes criminal through outward 

The first, the synthesis of every degeneration, 
the outcome of all biological deterioration, commits crimes 
against society by virtue of a morbid process passing from one 
generation to another, derived from cerebral and other phy- 
siological conditions. In him the impulse of passion is not 
sullen or isolated, but associates itself almost always with 
reflection. The second, on the contrary, the criminal of 
passion and impetus, acts at a given moment in consequence 
of an overwhelming stimulus, say, a sudden access of jealousy. 
The two classes frequently merge into each other, for the mere 
fact that a man, suddenly, without reflection, by a reflex act, 
as it were, stabs his offender or his unfaithful wife, proves 
that he is not normal. The want of reflection constitutes an 
extenuating circumstance before judge or jury, but before 



182 Italy of the Italians 

pathological psychology, says Signor Sergi, " it constitutes an 
accusation." 

The importance of the distinction is seen in the views taken 
on criminal jurisprudence by Lombroso and his school. It 
is generally said that to act logically in face of these views 
we should have to make extensive use of capital punishment. 
The most hasty perusal of Lombroso's books will show that 
this is not his view of the case. He lays immense stress 
on prevention, for even the morbid process may, he asserts, 
be modified in the very young, just as a disease, taken in 
time, may be cured, but, neglected, becomes chronic. 

He examines carefully the means adopted in various coun- 
tries for refining the minds of children, and speaks warmly 
of English ragged schools. Juvenile refine- 
Pre^n«on ^^^^> strict but judicious control, education 
in the highest sense of the word — these 
must be, he argues, the primary object of every 
nation which aims at decreasing its criminality. He 
also advocates an association between various nations 
for the hunting of criminals, and for making such 
observations on their lives and habits as shall lead to 
their easier classification. Ip reformatories he has small 
belief ; statistics show that they in no way decrease the 
percentage of recidivists ; the fact of recidivism shows the 
habitual criminal, and here no punishment will suffice. The 
man must be treated as though afflicted with a serious illness 
and removed from society, for which, however, he may and 
should be made to work. 

He insists that these questions are of vital importance to 
every nation, and asserts repeatedly that teachers in ragged 
schools and founders of polytechnics are patriots and philan- 
thropists in the highest sense of the words, because helping to 
stamp out crime more than all the long-term sentences in the 
world. 

Crime is at once a biological and a social phenomenon. 
The criminal^^is a microbe which only flourishes on suitable 



Philosophy 183 

soil. Without doubt it is the environment which makes 

the criminal, but, like the cultivation medium, without 

the microbe it is powerless to germinate the 

th'^c '^^"^ 1 crime. To use Professor Ferri's expression, up 
to recent times the criminal has been regarded 
as a sort of algebraical formula ; the punishment has been 
proportioned not to the criminal but to the crime. Anthro- 
pologists are teaching us to strive after scientific justice. 
Time and events have brought into clear relief the inadequacy 
of legal maxims, founded on antiquated and unscientific 
conceptions, and thus modern Italians show us that not the 
nature of the crime but the dangerousness of the offender 
constitutes the only reasonable legal criterion to guide the 
inevitable social reaction against the criminal. This position 
is the legitimate outcome of the scientific study of the criminal. 
And where the man of science has led the way the man of 
law must follow. 

Such, in brief and somewhat in the rough, are the conclusions 
of Italian criminal anthropology, which I have given at some 

J . f 1 length, as the subject is too vast as well as 

Congress of too new to be clearly comprehensible in a few 
Criminal words. In the autumn of 1896 an Inter- 

nt opo ogis s. j^g^^JQjja^j Congress of Criminal Anthropologists 
was held at Geneva, and on this occasion the Italian school 
triumphed as never before over all adversaries and schismatics, 
and especially over their French colleagues, who had carried 
their antagonism to things Italian even to the serene fields 
of science. The French objections were beaten down by a 
very hailstorm of facts, so carefully collated, so industriously 
collected, that opposition was perforce silenced. 

In the front ranks of the combatants, indeed, leading the 

attack, was that eminent criminal sociologist, Enrico Ferri, 

whose legal vocations have not hindered him 

Views of from continuing his favourite studies, though 

he is no less valiant as a lawyer than as a 

scientist. Indeed, he holds that the two studies ought to go 



184 Italy of the Italians 

hand in hand. All lawyers, he affirms, should dedicate them- 
selves to the study of criminal anthropology if they would 
go to the fountain-head of human responsibility ; all judges 
should be inspired by this doctrine, ere blindly punishing 
a culprit on the faith of a code not always founded on direct 
observation of the environment or of the individual. " It 
is not true that with Lombroso's theories all prison doors 
would be broken down and respectable humanity given over 
to the mercy of delinquents, as our opponents say. And 
were the first part of this strange paradox to be verified, i.e., 
that which demands that in order to be logical all prison doors 
be opened — there would open also those of the lunatic asylums 
in order to permit the entry of the men ejected from the pri- 
sons, individuals whose mental and physical constitutions 
pushed them into crime." It was just this theory of the born 
criminal, which Lombroso was the first irrefutably to prove, 
and whose effects must shortly be felt in criminal legislation, 
that carried off the most clamorous victory at Geneva. 

Cesare Lombroso, who is a Jew by birth, was born at 
Turin, in 1836. As a mere lad he loved to write, and com- 
posed, with the same facility and rapidity that 

Career of distinguishes him to this day, novels, poems, 
Cesare Lombroso. f. i i • i i • 

tragedies, treatises on archaeological, physio- 
logical, and already on sociological subjects, those dating 
from his student days being actually published, so much 
talent did they show. Medicine was the study to which 
he devoted himself, and his first independent researches were 
directed to examining into the causes that produce the idiocy 
and pellagra which are, unfortunately, so widespread in 
Lombardy and Liguria. His treatise on this theme attracted 
the attention of no less a person than Professor Virchow. 
After fighting for the independence of Italy in 1859, he was 
appointed professor of psychiatry at Pavia, where he founded 
a psychiatric museum. From Pavia he passed to Pesaro, 
as director of the Government mad-house, and thence to 
Turin as professor of forensic medicine, a position he still 



Philosophy 185 

retains. It was in his native Turin that he began those 
original studies destined to make his name famous over all 
the globe. Endowed by nature with a strong intelligence, 
a robust will, and a keen intellectual curiosity, he was in- 
different to the incredulous smile, the sarcasms, that greeted 
his first efforts at solving problems hitherto held insoluble. 
Very bitter, very hard were his struggles — how hard only those 
can appreciate who have talked with Lombroso in intimacy 
and have noted the pained scorn with which he speaks of his 
adversaries — adversaries some of whom are not silenced to 
this hour. But his science, his studies conquered, which if 
not always complete yet are always serious, wherefore criminal 
anthropology, a mere infant some thirty years ago, may to-day 
be said to be adult ; a raw empiric but a while ago, to-day a 
science, young if you will, but vital and destined to overturn 
the facile, fantastic monuments erected by so many penalists. 

The work with which Lombroso will go down to posterity 

is a huge book, huge in every sense of the word, in which 

criminal man is studied on a scientific basis. 

^LoS'so*** We refer to the " Uomo Dehnquente," of 
which its author has published a revised and 
enlarged edition, wrestling with new facts, new observations, 
and new deductions. It is dedicated to Max Nordau, the 
author of that noted book, " Degeneration," who had in his 
turn dedicated his work to his master, Cesare Lombroso. 

The dedication reads thus : "To you I have wished to 
dedicate this volume with which I close my studies on human 
degeneration, as to the most sincere friend I have found in the 
sad course of my scientific life, and as to the one who has 
wrested fecund fruits from the new doctrines I have attempted 
to introduce into the scientific world." 

Needless to say that Lombroso is the very first person to 
admit that in the almost virgin field of criminal anthropology 
there is still much to do, and that Science has not yet spoken 
her last word ; but it is his magic wand that has indicated 
the horizon and has swept over vast new areas, often with 

13— (2395) 



186 Italy of the Italians 

lightning rapidity and intuition. Thus, the base of the new 
edifice was laid, and the rest of the monument rose up rapidly 
around it, notwithstanding its occasional faultiness, pointed 
out eagerly by adverse scientists, criticisms that could not 
shake down the edifice, for its base was too solid and strong. 
Gradually a few apostles of the new science gathered around 
Lombroso, and the little compact mass moved from success 
to success. 

Another of Lombroso's books which aroused much discussion 
and which may almost be said to have founded yet another 
school, if we may so designate the group devoted to the study 
of another branch of anthropology, was " Genio o Follia " 
(Genius or Madness ?), which largely helped to make its 
author's name known even outside of strictly scientific circles. 
This work enchanted all thinkers, psychiatrists, doctors, 
indeed, all men who dedicate themselves to the search for 
signs of madness in the lives and works of eminent authors 
and artists. For Lombroso had striven in this book to prove 
scientifically how closely genius and madness are allied. 
As was the case with " Criminal Man," so here, too, the 
master's disciples strayed from the paths laid down by the 
pioneer, exaggerated his conclusions and carried them to 
absurd excesses. Lombroso had at last to raise his voice 
against the extravagances into which he was dragged. 
Besides various absurdities, there were published some careful, 
serious studies having for their themes the lives of Napoleon I, 
Leopardi, Ugo Foscolo, and Byron, in which it was made to 
appear that these men were all victims of heredity, and 
neither their virtues nor their vices were their own — studies 
of some interest, academically considered, but of no tangible 
utility, and which did not add or detract one iota from the 
merits or demerits of their subjects. Against this method 
of dealing with men of genius as pathological subjects 
Mantegazza very rightly upraised his voice in the name of 
art, tradition, and history. 

Space does not permit of naming Lombroso's varied and 



Philosophy 187 

Toluminous writings, which are enumerated in every bio- 
graphical dictionary. " La Donna DeUn- 
mitingl.** quente " (The Criminal Woman), written in 
collaboration with G. Ferrero, one of the 
most promising of the younger criminal anthropologists, of 
which an incomplete and inadequate translation appeared in 
England, aroused a storm of discussion on its publication, 
and was especially attacked by the adherents of the old 
methods. He has since published " The Anarchists," in 
which he also takes unusual views with regard to these latter- 
day society pests — pests for which society itself, as nowadays 
conditioned, he holds to be alone responsible — and " Crime 
as a Society Function," which has aroused the fury of the 
clerical and moderate factions in Italy. 

Chips from the workshop of his extraordinarily prolific 
brain, ever evolving new ideas, new points of view, he scatters 
in the many articles he loves to write for English and American 
periodicals, but his most important scientific communications 
he reserves for the Archivio di Psichiatria, which he edits 
together with Ferri and Garofolo. His work is by no means 
perfect : he is apt to jump too rapidly at conclusions, to accept 
data too lightly ; thus he was led at the beginning to over- 
estimate the atavistic element in the criminal, and at a later 
date he has pressed too strongly the epileptic affinities of 
crime. Still, when all is said and done, his work is undoubt- 
edly epoch-making, and he has opened up valuable new lines 
of investigation and suggested others. 

I said that Lombroso's first studies were directed to the 

pellagra, that strange and terrible disease which annually 

mows down such a vast number of victims 

The Pellagra, in the fair land of Northern Italy, and which 
is a luminous proof of the grave financial 
condition of the labourers in some of the most beautiful and 
wealthy regions of the world. Concerning this terrible illness, 
which densely populates Italian mad-houses, all students of 
natural science have long been gravely occupied. For the 



188 Italy of the Italians 

terrible increase in lunacy noted by Italian statistics in the 
last years the pellagra is largely responsible. 

Psychiatry, which has abandoned the old methods in 
Italy, is no longer a jailer employing the methods of an 
inquisitor, but a science that seeks for ultimate causes and 
remedies, and, in alliance with economic and political 
science, endeavours to restore to society a large contingent of 
workers which would otherwise be destroyed by disease. 

Especially active in this department is Enrico Morselli. 
Psychologist, anthropologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and 

literary man — Morselli has right to all these 
Enrico Morselli. titles, and in each branch he is noteworthy. 

As a mere student he attracted attention by 
disputing the conclusions of a noted celebrity on some an- 
thropological points, proving himself right. When only 
twenty-eight he was called to preside over the Turin Lunatic 
Asylum, and soon distinguished himself by his profound 
knowledge of everything connected with the study and treat- 
ment of the demented. Besides attending to his profession 
he found time to write a number of works dealing with normal 
and abnormal mental maladies, whose mere enumeration 
would fill pages, some of which, like his work on Suicide, 
have been translated into English. One of Morselli's works 
was a reply to Brunetiere's assertions regarding " the bank- 
ruptcy of science," demonstrating that here was a case in 
which the wish was father to the thought, and for which no 
real foundation existed. 

Paolo Mantegazza, the founder of the National Museum of 
Anthropology, of world-wide fame, has been rather left behind 

in the rapid onward tramp of his younger 
The Father of colleagues. Mantegazza is perhaps entitled 
Anthropology. ^^ ^^Y claim to the name he loves to sport, 

that of the "father of Italian anthropology; " 
but, according to the more precise views of our day, 
he can hardly be regarded as a real scientist. As is 
often the case, the sons have out-stripped the father. 



Philosophy 189 

who now combats the views of his legitimate offspring. 
A reproach cast at Mantegazza, it would seem not 
without reason, is that he too closely follows Moli^re's 
precept, " Je prends mon bien cyU je le trouve," and that he has 
passed off as his own the conclusions and the work of German 
scientific men. Another reproach that is certainly well 
founded is his manifest delight in handling obscene themes, 
and handling them not in the calm, scientific spirit that 
removes from them a real obscene character, but treating 
the details with a gusto that reveals how these prurient matters 
rather delight than disgust him, and what is worse, these 
works are written in popular language, frankly appealing 
to a popular rather than a scientific audience. To this class 
belong all his works on Love, on Women, on the Art of Taking 
a Wife, of Being a Husband, etc. It may safely be asserted 
that his fame is steadily declining, and that his want of 
perseverance and observation is itself to blame for this. By 
nature Mantegazza was endowed with a fine and versatile 
intelligence, but he has lowered it in the search after cash 
and easy success. This handsome old man, with the face and 
smile of a satyr, is a familiar figure in the streets of Florence. 
The number of men in contemporary Italy who are strict 
anthropologists without being sociologists is extraordinarily 
great, and there is none of them who has not done good and 
original work. Limits of space oblige me perforce to pass 
them by, in order to speak of yet others of the new school 
created by Lombroso's theories, and who take rank in the 
files of criminal anthropology, a science far more interesting 
to the general reader than that which deals with biology 
pure and simple. To this section in the first rank belong the 
alienists, besides a large number of lawyers, judges, and 
journalists. The highest position among them belongs 
indubitably to Enrico Ferri. His verdict, like that of Cesare 
Lombroso, is constantly appealed to in complicated criminal 
cases where the sanity of the person or his natural proclivity 
to crime is in question. A man of really unusual physical 



190 Italy of the Italians 

beauty is Enrico Ferri, as well as of charm of manner and of 
eloquence which, when stirred to a theme 
Enrico *Ferri ^^^^ *° ^^^ heart, carries all before it. Enrico 
Ferri was born in 1856, in the neighbourhood 
of Mantua, a city whose very name in Austrian days was 
synonymous with cruel despotism, for this and Spielburg were 
the favourite fortresses of the German persecutors. At a 
tender age he lost his father, and his mother, left in straitened 
circumstances, had a hard struggle to give her only child an 
adequate education. Already at the University Ferri distin- 
guished himself, publishing a thesis which dealt with criminal 
law. When Lombroso published his great work on Criminal 
Man, Ferri was at once attracted by its scientific nature and 
sought to become acquainted with its author. Since then 
they have been fast friends as well as co-workers. In 1881 he 
was called to fill the chair of penal law at the University of 
Bologna. His opening discourse dealt with the theme which 
was to prove the first draft of his great work, Criminal 
Sociology, a work which has been translated into many 
European tongues. The lecture was entitled "New Horizons 
in Penal Law." 

He says : "It was in this inaugural discourse that I 

affirmed the existence of the positivist school of criminal law, 

and assigned to it these two fundamental 

^School* of"* ^^®^- ^' ^^^^® ^^^ classical schools of 
Criminal Law. criminal law have always studied the crime 
and neglected the criminal, the object of 
the positivist school was, in the first place, to study 
the criminal, so that, instead of the crime being regarded 
merely as a juridical fact, it must be studied with the 
aid of biology, of psychology, and of criminal statistics 
as a natural and social fact, transforming the old 
criminal law into a criminal sociology. 2. While the 
classical schools, since Beccaria and Howard, have fulfilled 
the historic mission of decreasing the punishments, as a 
reaction from the severity of the mediaeval laws, the object 




FUoio hy 



(jiacomo brogi, Florence 



ENRICO FERRI 



Philosophy 191 

of the positivist school is to decrease the offence by investigat- 
ing its natural and social causes in order to apply social 
remedies more efficacious and more humane than the penal 
counteraction, always slow in its effects, especially in its 
cellular system, which I have called one of the aberrations 
of the nineteenth century." 

Ferri has occupied himself less with the instinctive than 

with the occasional criminal, and his clear and philosophic 

spirit has placed him at the head of criminal 

^H '^"^•d °" sociologists. Elected to Parliament even 
before the age of thirty, previous to which he 
could not take his place, according to Italian law, he began 
as an avowed Liberal, but soon passed over to the ranks of 
scientific socialists, whose acknowledged leader he has since 
become. He also holds the post of professor of penal law. 
His most important work has Homicide as its theme. It 
may truly be called a monumental book, for it covers a 
thousand closely-printed pages. 

Crime is a decided condition. This is the final and lucid 
outcome of this learned work, a conclusion at which Virgil 
and Lombroso independently arrived, and a conclusion that 
honours these thinkers. And crime is not a normal pheno- 
menon. Its existence only helps to confirm the innate 
relations that exist between economic conditions and criminal 
facts, or rather in Ferri's own words, " that the present social 
crisis has reached such a point as to render even criminal 
symptoms acute and profound, which does not exclude that 
in a more advanced phase of social order, such as scientific 
socialists look forward to, crime, like every other symptom 
of social pathology, will be reduced to the smallest propor- 
tions, such as occurs to common illnesses on the cessation of 
a more or less prolonged epidemic." 

This book Ferri dedicated to his little three-year-old son, 
expressing the hope in his dedication, that when he is old 
enough to understand it, Italy may show fewer signs of moral 
pathology. Though in some points he has grown to differ 



192 Italy of the Italians 

from him, Ferri continues to venerate his master, Lombroso, 
and with rare eloquence defends his theories from attacks at 
moments when the less eloquent scientist seems silenced by 
the arguments of his adversaries. 

It is noteworthy and also significant that almost all thought- 
ful Italians who have dedicated themselves to the studies of 
anthropology in general and criminal anthro- 

Criminal pology in particular are Socialists in politics. 
Anthropologists » ., ,. . , ,. . 

and Socialism. Assiduous, dispassionate observation of man- 
kind would seem to have brought them to this 
conclusion. A leader in the Italian Parliament in this sense, 
as well as a gifted criminal anthropologist, is Napoleone 
Colajanni, by original profession a doctor, but now too 
absorbed in his political duties to practise. Colajanni is by 
birth a Sicilian, and has much of the quick, fiery temperament 
of these islanders, in whose veins the blood courses hotly. 
A facile orator, his speeches always command attention in 
Parliament, while his rigid, incorruptible honesty makes him 
esteemed in a milieu of unscrupulous politicians and wire- 
pullers. As philanthropist, as politician, he was early attrac- 
ted to study the problems of misery and crime, whence 
resulted his great work on Criminal Sociology. Like Ferri 
and all the other thoughtful students of the criminal, he 
has seen the direct bearing on criminality of what he himself 
well calls " social hygiene." He points out how we may 
neglect the problems of social organization, but must do so 
at our peril. In many respects he is opposed to Lombroso. 
He holds, for example, that Lombroso has 
Colajanni 3 ^^^ much accentuated the atavistic element 
in the criminal. He agrees with those who 
deem that of a great number of modern habitual criminals 
it may be said that they have the misfortune to live in an age 
when their merits are not appreciated. Had they lived in 
the world a sufficient number of generations ago, the strongest 
of them might have been chiefs of a tribe. As Colajanni has 
said : " How many of Homer's heroes would to-day be in 



Philosophy 193 

convict prisons or at all events despised as unjust and violent !" 
He has strenuously combated Lombroso's indiscriminate 
method of collecting facts, and compares it to Charles IX's 
famous order on St. Bartholomew's Eve : " Kill them all ! 
God will know his own." 

A word must be said concerning Garofolo, the Neapolitan 
lawyer, who, accepting generally the conclusions reached by 

Lombroso and Ferri, has become the most 
'"'^G^ofolo" °^ distinguished jurist of the moment, the 

pioneer of the reform of law through the 

method of natural science. His Criminology is marked by 

luminous suggestions of wise reform. Like Morselli, Garofolo 

does not blindly follow where his compeers lead. His volume 

entitled " SociaHstic Superstitions " excited much wrath and 

astonishment in socialistic and anthropological camps, and 

was severely combated, especially by Ferri, who wrote a 

pamphlet on purpose to confute the publication. R. Garofolo 

was born in Naples, in 1852, of an old patrician family, hence 

perhaps by atavism he is debarred from being a Socialist. 

He holds the position of professor of law and penal procedure 

in his native city, and was intrusted by the Government in 

1892 to draw up a scheme for the revision of the penal code. 

Garofolo has occupied hiniself chiefly, nay, entirely, with the 

legal side of criminal anthropology, and his great work 

Criminology deals with the means of repressing crime quite 

as much as with its nature and causes. He has also studied 

the question of what reparation is due to victims of crime. 

His only flight into sociology has concerned his attack on 

Socialism, in the curative Utopia of which he does not believe. 

Other notable followers of this fascinating science who 

must not be overlooked are : Scipio Sighele, Guglielmo 

Ferrero, and A. G. Bianchi. All three are 

Scipio Sighele. journalists, all three distinguished by the 

same qualities of keen observation, of more 

than ordinary cultivation, with sometimes a tendency to 

write a little hastily and to jump to conclusions too rapidly. 



194 Italy of the Italians 

This reproof especially concerns Sighele, who has allowed 
himself to judge and write of matters English and American 
of which he has but a superficial and second-hand knowledge. 
Here the newspaper writer has done wrong to the scientist. 
Sighele made his name with an admirable book entitled 
" The Criminal Crowd," which a French writer has thought fit 
to appropriate in outline and almost entirely in substance, 
obtaining for it the honour of translation into English, while 
the real author has been left out in the cold. Able, too, is 
" The Criminal Couple." A paradoxical pamphlet directed 
against parliamentary government, and revealing the failure 
of a system on which the hopes of Europe were once based 
as the sheet-anchor of liberty, excited some attention on its 
appearance in 1895, and was dealt with at length in Black- 
wood's Magazine. One of his latest works on Individual 
Morality as opposed to Public Morality, inspired by the 
doubtful morality of Signor Crispi's Government, also aroused 
discussion. 

Guglielmo Ferrero is a Piedmontese, and belongs to an old 
aristocratic family of Turin. Together with Lombroso he 

wrote a book on Criminal Woman which 
^Fe?rwT° ^^ °^^® brought him to the front. His first 

independent work was a remarkable one 
dealing with " Symbols." Since then he has written essays 
dealing with " Young Europe," and has now turned his 
attention to history, as I noted in the Literature chapter. 
Ferrero, too, is a convinced Socialist, and on this account 
was arrested during the reign of terror that prevailed in the 
course of the last months of Crispi's dictatorship. He was 
ordered to leave Italy, and, profiting by this enforced exile, 
he visited Germany and learned the language and the 
condition of anthropological studies in that land. 

A. G. Bianchi is a Milanese by birth. Not rich, like 
Ferrero, he had to make his own way, and entered into 
journalism as a means to obtain daily bread. He began 
life as a railway official, writing at the same time reviews 



Philosophy 195 

of new books, Italian and foreign. Together with a 
colleague he founded a paper called La Cronica Rossa, and 
it was in these pages that he began to 
A. G. Bianchi. occupy himself with scientific literature, and 
to prove himself an enthusiastic follower of 
Lombroso. He entered the best Italian newspaper, Corriere 
delta Sera, as its legal editor, and thus became even more en- 
amoured of criminal anthropology. Intelligent, industrious, 
studious, he dedicated himself to the new science with ardour, 
and in a short time became allied to Lombroso and Morselli, who 
both applauded his zeal and his methods of working. Together 
with Sighele he issued a publication on Criminal Anthropology, 
richly illustrated with pictures, diagrams, and statistics, which 
met with favour even outside of strictly scientific circles. 
A remarkable book published by him is the 
A ^gjjj'"*"® " Romance of a Born Criminal," the auto- 
biography of a convict, founded on authentic 
papers committed to his hands by the eminent psychiatrist, 
Silvio Venturi, director of the lunatic asylum at Catanzaro, 
a book which was translated immediately on its appearance 
into German, but which no English publisher has had the 
courage to issue, though it states at once in its preface that 
its scope is purely scientific, and that the word " Romance " is 
employed in a subjective sense. This piece of pathological 
literature throws a lurid light upon the inner nature of the 
criminal. Bianchi has written a long and careful preface, 
in which he points out just how and why this human docu- 
ment has scientific value. Bianchi has not had time to write 
many books, but his careful, studious articles are all of value, 
and denote his knowledge, intuition, and observation. 

Limits of space oblige me to leave unmentioned yet other 
valiant followers of criminal anthropology in Italy, but I hope 
I have said enough to prove that this science has in the 
Peninsula both numerous and able adherents, and that Italy 
is justified in considering herself at the head and front of 
studies of this nature — a position which, indeed, few dispute 



196 Italy of the Italians 

to her. Seeing how useful is this science as an auxiliary to 
the right study of history, literature, and political economy, 
it would be well if its propagation were more encouraged at 
Universities, in place of philosophy and metaphysics, which, 
when untouched by this new breath, have become fossilized 
and are as arid as they are sterile. 



CHAPTER IX 

AGRARIAN ITALY 

In Speaking of Italy every writer, however modern, still 
repeats the saying of Virgil, " Magna parens frugum," and 

insists that Italy is essentially an agricultural 

Italy mainly an country. This is one of those long established 

Country. prejudices which, true in the past, have lost 

their accuracy in the present, that it is so 
hard to eradicate from the popular mind. Beyond question 
the last census of 1901 seems to confirm this dictum, because 
it notifies nine-and-a-half million persons engaged in agricul- 
ture and only four million workmen occupied in industrial 
pursuits. Italy is, however, fast becoming an industrial 
country, as can be deduced from many indications, and this 
despite the fact that the land is devoid of the primary mate- 
rials and of the combustibles requisite in modern industry, 
though the latter deficiency is being rapidly substituted by 
great electric machines put into motion by the copious streams 
of water that flow down from all the mountain sides. Indeed, 
Italy's " white coal," as it is termed, is becoming a most 
important factor in her development and is rapidly supplanting 
the need for the fossil variety. 

However, this transformation into an industrial country 
does not interfere with the fact that the great, rare and varied 

favours bestowed by nature upon Italy permit 
Re ^urces^ *^ *° ^^ ^^ agricultural country par excellence. 

It can cultivate flowers and oranges in the 
southern provinces, on the Riviera it boasts a climate adapted 
to every species of plant that shuns the winter cold, in the 
uplands it owns rich pastures, in the centre it possesses a 
temperate zone that allows the lucrative culture of the olive 
tree, and finally it owns mountains where the chestnut 
flourishes 



198 Italy of the Italians 

To all this, however, there are unfortunately some draw- 
backs, though most of these are due to the hand of Mars 
and to generations of bad government. Thus, 

Dr^W:ks ^^^^ Ireland, the land has suffered from that 
disastrous system of handing over estates to 
stewards who frequently proved untrustworthy, and also 
from absenteeism, a malpractice rampant already in the 
days of Augustus and against which Virgil's Georgics were 
written to protest. 

Further, and this is a grave point, the mountains have been 

too much denuded of the forests that formerly clothed them. 

One of the first things a traveller notices is 

n^^'^H^H*"^ ^^^ ^^^^ appearance of the Apennines, for 
Trees. hundreds of miles lifting their naked peaks 

into the blue. Very beautiful they are when 
seen from a distance, especially when clothed in all the magic 
colouring of aerial tints at the moment of sunset. But a 
nearer approach shows them to be entirely denuded of timber, 
with their flanks deeply gashed by torrents and crumbling 
under the winter rains into a loose debris of stones and mud, 
mere wrecks of what they were when covered with the 
luxuriant forests for which Italy was celebrated in classical 
times. The northern sentiment for trees does not exist in 
the south, and the old classic feeling of reverence for the 
wood nymphs is dead and gone. The Dryads have fled for 
ever. Such trees as are seen are preserved for the sake of 
their fruits, for example, the oak woods of Umbria, which 
feed the numerous herds of pigs of that district with acorns. 
There are also large tracts of coppice-wood, which is cut in 
successive strips every ten or fifteen years and thus gives 
a regular income to the proprietor ; but the growth of large 
timber trees is not encouraged, as the profit upon them is 
too remote. The necessities of the Italian landowner make 
him look to every centime, and the poverty of the peasant 
may serve as his excuse for so mercilessly lopping and 



Agrarian Italy 199 

topping every tree to make faggots for the fire and to feed 

the cattle with foliage. Even the long lines 

Causes of the qj poplar trees which mark the course of 

Destruction of r .-, .i x j. j ^-i 

Trees. many of the rivers are thus treated, until 

they assume the appearance of gigantic 
broomsticks. 

The charcoal-burner also penetrates ever further and 
further into the most inaccessible spots in the pursuit of his 
destructive trade, and even where carriage roads do not 
exist, for the sacks of light charcoal can be transported on 
mule-back over the mountain paths. Another cause of the 
destruction of woods has recently been added in the shape 
of mills which manufacture coarse paper out of wood pulp. 
Wherever a paper-mill is established it devours an ever- 
increasing circle of the woods around. And the natural 
growth of young trees to replace the old is often prevented 
by the flocks of goats and sheep that everywhere roam un- 
checked over the higher mountains. For, next to man, 
the greatest enemies of the trees are the goats and sheep. 
When a wood has been cut down, if these animals have access 
to the spot, not a sapling can escape their poisonous teeth. 
The seeds in the ground are soon exhausted, the old stumps 
and roots decay, and the loosened soil is washed away by the 
torrential rains, the ground crumbles, landslips take place, 
and a ruinous slope of loose stones and debris replaces the 
former forest. 

This is the history of many an Apennine which looks so fair 
at a distance. And the climate of Italy has been changed 

for the worse by the destruction of the forests, 

Effect on ^^^ ^-^^^ described by the classical writers as 
Climate. „. . ^ , : , . , ^ , 

prevailing m Italy m their day must have 

been milder than the present ; the clothing of the ancient 

Romans, for instance, could not have been fitted to withstand 

the icy blast of the tramontana of to-day. 

After the Unification the Government took over from the 

former States the domain lands and forests still existing, and 



200 Italy of the Italians 

has acquired others by the suppression of the monasteries. 
Unfortunately, the needs of the treasury led 

^Forestry °^ *° ^^^ ^^^® °^ ^^^^ °^ *^^^^ forests to private 
speculators, who have only thought of cutting 
down the trees without attempting'to re-plant. The remainder 
of the forests have been left under State management. A 
school of Forestry exists in the ex-convent of Vallombrosa, 
provided with a staff of professors, and here a certain number 
of young men are trained in forestry and are afterwards sent 
as inspectors and sub-inspectors to the various Government 
forests. Nurseries of young trees have also been formed, 
and these are given to private owners upon certain conditions. 
A number of admirable laws, copied from the forest laws of 
Germany and France, were also added to the Italian Statute 
book. 

The chief forests in Tuscany are those of the Abetone, 

and those of the former convents of Vallombrosa and 

Camaldoli, now under Government manage- 

Foreste nient. There are also extensive woods in the 

Maremma and along the sea-coast, belonging 

partly to the Government and partly to private individuals. 

Among them is the Pineta of the Royal game preserve at San 

Rossore, near Pisa. 

Whoever has visited those former sanctuaries and noted the 
regular lines of magnificent fir trees climbing the mountain 
sides and mingling with the natural growth of beech, will 
acknowledge that the men of prayer were also men of labour, 
and will feel grateful to them for preserving these oases of 
verdure in the midst of the surrounding waste of naked 
and melancholy hills. Filled with the song of birds and the 
noise of running streams, and carpeted with the wild flowers 
of early summer, these sylvan paradises still invite the wan- 
derer to rest awhile and commune with nature in a nobler 
temple than any reared by hands. 

Here also is a practical example of what may be done by 
co-operation and social organisation in agriculture. The life 



Agrarian Italy 201 

of each individual monk would have effected but little, but 
the life of the community endured for century after century 
with a steady purpose, and enabled works to be undertaken 
and successfully accomplished which would have been quite 
out of the power of individual ownership. It will be a good 
augury for the future when the whole question of the 
re-afforestation of the mountains is undertaken. 

It has been suggested that the whole chain of the Apennines 

should be declared State property and devoted to the growth 

_. of trees, compensation of course being given 

Re-afforestation to the private owners and to the inhabitants 

of the of the mountain villages, who could find 

un ains. employment as foresters and woodmen instead 

of as goatherds and shepherds. But this implies a large 

expenditure. 

Again a large portion of the centre of the Peninsula 
is marshy, producing malaria, and it must take 
much time and yet more money before this land can be 
reclaimed. 

These are the shadow sides to which must further be added 

the ignorance in which the peasants were purposely kept by 

former governments, their inbred conservatism 

instruction^ ^^^ attachment to antediluvian methods, and 
also and not least, the disdain evinced until 
quite recently by the educated for rural occupations. Hence, 
despite the fact that Italy has a State Department specially 
devoted to agriculture, and that this Ministry has attacked 
its task with zeal, and intelligence, notwithstanding the fact 
that it has spared no pains in the matter of propaganda, by 
opening agricultural schools, by assigning premiums, by 
experimental stations, by exhibitions, and encouragement 
in every shape and form, the revival and profound modifica- 
tion of agricultural methods has only been noticeable during 
quite the last few years. It was needful for new generations 
to arise before the riches of the Italian soil could be appre- 
ciated as in the past, before many deep-seated prejudices 

14— (2395) 



202 Italy of the Italians 

could be uprooted and a rational system of rural economy 
inaugurated. 

The ancient aristocracy and the older bourgeoisie scorned 
the notion of letting their sons take up agriculture as a pursuit 
and study it as a science. They desired to 
^aduat^ in ggg them inscribed as Masters of Art in some 
University, they wished that they should bear 
the title of doctor or advocate. By a happy thought the 
Government recently hit on the device of satisfying this petty 
ambition by also conceding the title of doctor to those who 
have satisfactorily completed a course of studies in the High 
School of Agriculture. Since then things have gone better, 
and there are now not lacking really learned cultivators who 
live upon and in the midst of their own fields and still retain 
and hold high and untarnished their ancestral coat of arms. 
We now meet with Marchesi and Conti, Senators and Deputies, 
who have passed their studies in husbandry, who have trav- 
elled in order to see what is done in other lands, and who are 
putting into practice on their estates the most recent modern 
agricultural improvements. 

And their number nowadays is not small. Formerly they 

were rare exceptions. Among these exceptions it is but right 

to remember Count Cavour, who before 

Distinguished becoming Italy's greatest statesman and 

Cultivation, regenerator was a practical farmer, and Baron 

Bettino Ricasoli, also a Prime Minister, who 

gave so great an impulse to viticulture and the wine-making 

industry in his ancestral estates of Brolio in the Chianti 

district that to-day the best Italian red wine goes under the 

collective name of Chianti. Nor must Prince Torlonia of 

Rome be forgotten who drained the Lake of Fucino in the 

province of Aquila, redeeming the land for fertile cultivation. 

And this occurred amid the general wonder and derision of 

the population who saw the Prince pouring millions into this 

enterprise (it is calculated that he spent not less than forty 

million francs), and all repeated a phrase that has since 



Agrarian Italy 203 

become proverbial, " Either Torlonia will dry up Fucino or 
Fucino will dry up Torlonia." 

But leaving aside these historical instances, and while 
recording the fact with pleasure that some rich proprietors 
are at last occupying themselves with the welfare of their 
properties, investing capital and science and labour, all this is 
still but as a drop in the ocean compared to Italy's needs in this 
respect if she is to be regenerated economically. 

The position of Italian agriculture is certainly most difficult 
for a foreigner to understand owing to the complexity and 
variety of methods of land tenure. There are, for instance, 
the so-called Latifondi, the old Latifundia or large estates 
of the Romans, which belong to rich proprietors and are 
usually left almost uncultivated. These owners are devotees 
of Santa Pace. They are content if they can lease their 
lands for grazing purposes, deriving thence some few thousand 
francs, and saving themselves the expense and trouble of 
investing capital, of administering the estate and of paying 
the onerous taxes laid upon cultivated land. 

In sharp contrast to these Latifundi are the little properties, 

divided and sub-divided, that usually belong to a family that 

is numerous, and the members of which 

ProMrties nevertheless insist that they must live upon 

the produce of the little piece of ground that 

pertains to them. And they do so live, but as a rule most 

wretchedly. These tiny proprietors have no capital available 

for manure, for buying good seed and modern agricultural 

implements. They still employ the plough and harrow in 

use in Virgil's day and described in the Georgics. Added to 

this, they are as a rule grossly ignorant, and thus on the one 

hand they hinder the progress of agriculture and on the other 

are condemned to lead most miserable existences. 

A typical example is furnished by the Island of Sardinia, 
where these minute properties are called ianche. The pro- 
prietors who cultivate them all live in the nearest villages, 
and often have to tramp many kilometres before arriving 



204 Italy of the Italians 

at their tanca, and though they work hard upon it, what 
the impoverished soil can render is absurdly little. 
Consequently they are unable to pay the 
Small imposts wherewith their land is charged, with 

Sardinia. the result that their little property is in- 
exorably expropriated on the part of the tax- 
collector and put up to auction. However, it never finds a 
purchaser, for fear of the vendetta on the part of the proprietor, — 
for the vendetta in Sardinia is almost a religion, although the 
people by nature are good-hearted and gentle. In this way, 
no purchaser being forthcoming, the expropriated lands pass 
into the possession of the State. But the State neither 
administers them nor cultivates such petty lands on its own 
account, and thus the question resolves itself to the benefit 
of the original owner, who quietly goes back to cultivate the 
soil without being obliged to pay the taxes. 

Such minute properties, however, as those of Sardinia 

are not common to the whole of Italy. In other regions 

where they exist these alternate with 

Life on an larger estates, and as a rule they are of a 
Average Estate. o ' j 

size that permits the owner to live well if he 

cultivates himself, or even if he cultivates by help of day 

labourers. Usually such proprietors live in the nearest 

village or town, and early in the day walk over to their land, 

rifle on shoulder, and superintend the field-workers, who are 

paid by the day, and miserably at that. These, too, have 

usually to walk long distances from their dwelling-places to 

their work, for country cottages are almost unknown in Italy. 

In some districts a proprietor lets his lands to a family of 

agricultural labourers and does not trouble himself further, 

except to draw his rent monthly or annuall5^ 

^^S t *^^^^ Finally, in Tuscany, and now also in some 

other regions, there prevails what is known 

as the Metayer System, in which the method of profit-sharing 

finds its simplest expression, and which generally works to 

the general contentment, though, of course, both parties 



Agrarian Italy 205 

grumble, — but then grumbling is the farmers' special privilege. 
The Italian law defines the relation of the metayer to his 
landlord as a contract by which the cultivator of the farm 
has to divide the produce of the farm with the proprietor. 
In theory this metayer tenancy is annual, in practice it is 
generally indefinitely prolonged, and instances are frequent 
where a family of metayer peasants have worked for an 
estate for some three or four hundred years. Until recently 
these contracts have been purely verbal. Of course, a 
metayer may not work for any one but his landlord. 

This system implies as a necessary corollary what is known 

as mixed culture, that is, the simultaneous cultivation of 

several different species of crop on the same 

Mixed Culture, soil and also the pursuit of domestic rural 

industries. Thus, corn and maize will be 

planted under the olive trees, and cabbages will grow in the 

rows between the vines. It is this intensive cultivation that 

gives Tuscany its garden look. And the reason for all this 

is that the peasant under the metayer system receives no 

salary. Hence being a simple partner with his landlord in the 

land industry he must extract from the soil all that is needful 

for his own sustenance and that of his family. He also has 

a traditional creed that he must eat bread made of his own 

wheat, drink wine extracted from his own grapes, dress his 

salad with oil pressed from his own trees, omelettes made 

from his own eggs, and so forth. On the other hand, too, this 

mixed culture assures to him an average annual income, 

because if in one year, for example, the vintage is scanty, 

he may find compensation in the wheat harvest, or that of 

the oil, the vegetables, the fruit, or vice versa. 

This form of contract is considered in Italy not only the 
most useful for both parties, but also the most humane, and 
it certainly has a good effect upon the people, who are usually 
gracious, charming and well bred wherever this system 
obtains, as well as law-abiding and less prone to be affected by 
subversive theories. 



206 Italy of the ItaHans 

This is how the system, which is of great antiquity, works 
in practice. The landlord supplies the land, the farm build- 
ings, the dwelling-house, the cattle, he ad- 
"°Vo^rks^S**'" ^^^^^^ the capital needful for the purchase 
Practice. of manure, seed, and whatever else is required. 
In a word, we have here to do with two part- 
ners of whom one is a capitalist and one a worker. The 
products as well as the expense, are divided at fixed dates 
into equal parts, excepting always the taxes which, together 
with all improvements, fall to the share of the landlord. 
The Tuscan proprietor will tell with a smile that his peasants 
at the fixed date invite their master to come for the annual 
reckoning with the phrase " venga a dividere la sua met^ " 
(Come and divide your half), but matters are not quite as 
bad as this, though petty peculations no doubt occur. But 
the grain, for instance, is always thrashed on the central 
threshing-floor, and the sacks separated on the spot. Oil 
and wine, too, can easily be divided. Such products as 
vegetables and eggs are, perhaps, less easily checked. 

Certainly by this system the careful attention of the peasant 

to the soil is ensured, since he is the more interested party, 

but, unfortunately, as a rule the peasant is 

Peasant conservative, distrustful of all innovations and 

full of prejudices, and hence under the metayer 

system agriculture does not progress unless the proprietor 

is up-to-date and can persuade his underlings as to the 

advantages of more modern methods. 

The average size of the farms worked on the m6tayer 

system are from eight to ten hectares. The metayer 

family generally consists of five or six 

Fam^l*^^^ men, two or three women, who work as 

hard as the men, and the children who assist 

with the lighter work. As a rough rule it is calculated that 

there should be a man to every hectare, but of course this 

varies with the nature of the soil and the crop cultivated. 

The head of such a peasant family is called a Cappoccio or 



Agrarian Italy 207 

Massaro, and he is quite an autocrat in his small way. He 
need not necessarily be the father. It is always the most 
intelligent who is chosen to fill this position of trust, as it is 
he also who represents the whole household in all its dealings 
with the landlord or with outsiders, who keeps the accounts, 
the common purse, and effects all sales and purchases. His 
wife or some other female member rules the internal affairs 
of the household in the same manner. 

In this connection it may be mentioned that there is no law 
of entail in Italy, so that every owner of land can deal with it 
as he desires. Nevertheless, estates often remain long in one 
family. The game on the land belongs to the proprietor, 
and cannot be shot without his permission, provided he 
surrounds his property with boundary marks and puts up 
posts in conspicuous places marked " Bandita," a word and 
custom that often puzzles travellers. 

There exist at the present time over thirty schools of 
practical agriculture maintained by the Government, many 
private institutions having the same end in 
ACTicuiture view, and ten special Government schools for 
the teaching of wine-making, oil-making, 
viticulture, pomology, zootechnics, cheese-making, cattle- 
breeding, bee-keeping, etc., etc. Besides this, every province 
possesses one or more so-called " ambulant chairs of agricul- 
ture," whose professors hold lectures in the various communes, 
teach the people improved methods, give counsel in cases of 
plant diseases, reply to all questions put by cultivators, and 
also conduct researches and make studies in all departments 
touching agrarian matters, and all this at the expense of the 
Government. There are also some forty scholarships obtain- 
able for entrance to the schools of practical agriculture, and 
at the expense of the Ministry of War lectures on agrarian 
matters are delivered to the soldiers, of whom so many are 
peasants who will shortly return to the land. Further, Italy 
possesses three Agricultural High Schools that take University 
rank, one at Portici near Naples, one at Milan, and one at 



208 Italy of the Italians 

Perugia. Some Universities, like those of Pisa, Bologna, and 
Rome have an agrarian faculty. 

In short, while under the old regime, agrarian instruction 
was an unknown quantity, there now come forth from these 

various institutions thousands of youths who 

Displacement of must become wise proprietors and able 

Managers. stewards. Thus, the old type of fattore, or 

manager of the estates, and the old " massaro" 
or " capoccio," who managed all agricultural concerns, often 
in the former case to their no small personal profit, are being 
gradually displaced by young men who understand their 
business. Speaking of the old school of fattori, who often 
superintended several poderi, or united farms, on behalf 
of one landlord, there is an old proverb that runs — " Fammi 
fattore un'anno e se non diventero ricco sara mio danno " 
(Make me steward for one year and if I do not grow rich it 
will be my loss). 

In every province there are now to be found agrarian 
committees presided over by the chief cultivator of the 

province. In these committees the common 
Committees interests of the farmers are upheld, and 

purchases are often made in common, for 
instance, of machines, or of seed. They are also encouraged 
to suggest to the Government possible improvements in 
methods and to do all in their power to raise the condition of 
agriculture in their district. Similar local committees are 
also formed in defence against hail, that terrible plague of 
the Italian farmer, by means of shooting into the hail-laden 
clouds. The formation of such committees is obligatory upon 
a district if two-thirds of those interested demand its institu- 
tion. The cost of initial outlay and the annual expenses 
are divided among the landlords pro rata according to the 
benefits derived. The gunpowder supplied for this purpose 
is exempt from taxation. 

Similar obligatory committees exist for the defence of the 
vines against the phylloxera, to combat plant diseases of all 



Agrarian Italy 209 

kinds, and here again facilities are offered, as in the shape of 
the sale, at a greatly reduced price, of the tobacco juice re- 
quired for the destruction of the insects that prey upon the 
fruit trees. 

These insect pests would, of course, be infinitely reduced 

if the Italian of all classes had not a perfect mania for shooting 

small birds. There is no bird, however tiny 

^''°g?*V'" °^ or tasteless, that is not mercilessly shot down 

and brought to market to figure as " game " 

(caccia) upon the household menu. A society has been 

formed for the protection of the feathered songsters and some 

laws have been added to the Statute Book, but so far the 

results are inappreciable. 

It will be seen from the above that the Government is really 
not slack, and that it has devised not a few methods to assist 
and encourage agriculture. It also in various 
Goyernment centres keeps deposits of the most improved 
Agriculture, types of agricultural machines of which the 
use, under certain very proper guarantees, 
is conceded for the normal length of fifteen days ; it will even, 
in certain cases, give manure, seeds, grafts, plantlings, bees 
and other such stock gratis, and even furnishes the American 
vines, which it insists should supplant the native vines when 
they have been attacked by the phylloxera, besides indemni- 
fying the owners for the plants it has ordered to be destroyed. 
At Turin and Milan are to be found commercial museums 
that supply, also gratuitously, all the data that can assist 
the development of the natural agricultural 

Commercial industries and publish regular trade bulletins. 
Museums. ^ ° 

In various foreign centres, too, such as Berlin, 

New York, Buenos Ayres, Zurich, Trieste, there have been 

opened Government Enotechnic Institutes, from which Italian 

producers have a right to enquire about local markets and to 

which they can send samples for distribution among foreign 

firms. Commercial attaches are also now added to all the 

chief Embassies and do most useful work. 



210 Italy of the Italians 

In short, the Government, with its most limited means, 

has done wonders. Nor have the fruits of this wise policy 

been few. There are in Italy to-day rural 

Results of the properties that are veritable models of their 

Policy. class, where electric force is utilized and 

everything is done on a scientific basis. 

Within the ten kilometre radius of Rome, where lie the lands 

expropriated to free the city from malaria, can be found 

really splendid estates. "Worthy of mention among these 

is the Colony at Ostia, a co-operative society of Romagnoli 

peasants, who have turned into a gay garden the swampy 

soil of the Agro Romano. Equally exemplary in the same 

Agro is the Cervalletta estate, that can show irrigated fields, 

and stalls and stables of the latest type for the rearing of 

milch kine. Even in retrograde Sardinia a Milanese 

co-operative society has made a successful attempt at modern 

rural colonization. 

The economic condition of the farmers varies according to 

locality and system. They are generally good in the North 

and in the larger part of Central Italy, good 

Economic wherever the m6tayer system prevails, bad 

Farmers. i^ the South where the proprietor does not 

manage his affairs with technical knowledge 

or has scant capital at his disposal, so that he gets little from 

the soil and less from rural industries, wherefore he is the 

frequent victim of money-lenders. This latter circumstance 

also springs from the fact that the proprietor must pay his 

workmen at once, and is thus out of pocket for perhaps a 

year, before he can refund himself. Consequently he is too 

often forced to pledge the forthcoming harvest, borrowing the 

money at high rates of interest. 

To remedy this system Government Land banks and rural 
Credit Institutes are being formed. 

The condition of the day labourers is wretched. Their 
average wages are two francs in summer and one and a half 
in winter. They usually live in miserable hovels, and 






Plicto by S. J. Beckett, F.R.P.S. 

A WOMAN BUILDER AND BRICKLAYER 



Agrarian Italy 211 

often so far from their work that when they are engaged by 

the week or month they prefer to camp out 

The Day rather than tramp the long distances after hard 
Labourers. '^ ° 

work done on scant nourishment. It is rare, 

too, for them to find continuous work, and even when they do 

work under contract the pay is deducted for wet days. Small 

wonder that among this class the subversive doctrines of 

demagogues find ready acceptance, and that there have 

resulted the " Leagues of the Labourers " that have organised 

many strikes, which have almost always proved advantageous 

to the strikers. 

One of the scourges of the peasants is a skin disease, a 

species of leprosy called " pellagra," that frequently ends in 

madness. It is induced by insanitary con- 
A Common ditions and by the eating of damp or musty 

maize. To obviate this there are inspectors 
who investigate the grain deposits and who oblige the districts, 
where the maize has not properly ripened or is damp, to erect 
special desiccating kilns for this crop, which according to the 
old methods was merely hung outside the house to be dried 
by the sun. And picturesque do such labourers' homes look 
in the autumn, often all looped round with garlands of the 
bright golden cobs of the " Turkish corn," as it is called in 
Italy. Also, where " pellagra " has taken hold, the poor 
sufferers are removed to special hospitals, or if nursed at 
home the salt needed for the cure, that essential but in Italy 
so costly condiment, is supplied gratis for their consumption. 
Malaria is another curse that the Government does its best 
to combat, and which is in many cases yet another legacy 

from years of misgovernment. Quinine is 
^Mala^'a°^ given gratuitously to labourers in malarious 

districts. It is also prescribed by law, since 
the discovery that a species of mosquito carries the infection, 
that in the malaria zones fine wire or cotton nettings should 
be fixed in front of all doors and windows and even over the 
chimney tops. And malaria has certainly decreased, and 



212 Italy of the Italians 

could decrease still more, but obviously the Government 

cannot provide against the careless leaving open of all doors, 

or against torn and neglected netting. 

How much the King has agrarian interests at heart he 

proved in 1905, when in an open letter dated February 5th, 

and addressed to the then Prime Minister, 

The King's Giolitti, he commanded him to study the 
Interest in , 

Agrarian Affairs, question of founding an International Institute 

of Agriculture on lines that had been suggested 
to His Majesty by the American philanthropist, David Lubin. 
And since the King is energetic, and does not tolerate needless 
bureaucratic delays, within a month there was opened at the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs a provisional office for the founda- 
tion in Rome of the proposed Institute, that decided to 
convoke representatives of the States in sympathy with the 
project and to formulate a programme for an International 
Congress. 

The aim of this Institute is to promote intercourse between 
various countries, in order to learn the status of rural labour, 
the improvements effected, the latest disco- 
International veries, to establish an exchange of products — 
Agriculture, i^ ^ word, to seek to do for agriculture what 
the Labour Exchanges are doing for workmen, 
and it has this advantage over the Labour Exchanges that 
while these are usually maintained by the contributions of 
its members, all more or less poor themselves, this Institute 
is to be financially supported by the various States that have 
given their adhesion to the project. At the first Congress, 
held in May, 1905, in the Roman Capitol, King Victor 
Emmanuel himself presided, Mr. Lubin was also present to 
explain his views, and delegates from many nations, including 
even China. The King on this occasion announced that as 
his personal contribution he ceded to the Institute for its 
maintenance the rents of two Crown estates, a gift worth at 
least £12,000. 

Wine culture i§ the mpst ext^jided and most remunerative 



Agrarian Italy 213 

Italian agrarian product. All through the Peninsula we 

encounter vineyards, we see them equally 
Wine Culture, on the foot hills of the Alps and in the hot 

plains of the South. Where culture is mixed, 
as in Tuscany, the vine alternates with olive and fruit trees. 
For after France, Italy takes rank as the first wine-growing 
and producing country, turning out in average years some 
45,000 hectolitres, and this exclusive of the grapes and the 
" must " exported especially from the South for the wine- 
making of other countries. Indeed, was not the country once 
called Enotria, the land of wine ? 

Few plants seem to have so many enemies as the grape. 
What with the old diseases, and new diseases, swarms of evil 

insects, mist, and hail, too much and too little 
Enemies of the j-g^jj^^ everything conspires to threaten the 

precious vines from their setting in early 
spring until their maturity. The wind especially is a great 
foe. It rubs the bunches of grapes against each other, 
whereby many are pulled off and the rest bruised and injured, 
so that they do not reach the right point of sweetness and 
maturity. " The wind has drunk a great deal of wine," the 
peasants are wont to say after the " wild west wind, the 
breath of autumn's being " has been sweeping over their 
vine-clad hills in September. In the plains, where other crops 
will grow, they are less important than in the hills ; but even 
then they are tenderly watched and discussed. But in the 
hills, where the broad stony slopes will grow nothing but 
olives and vines, they are all-important. To save them from 
their enemies they are now often covered with sulphur-dust 
in the spring, which the peasants blow over them from out of 
a queer tin apparatus. Disastrous is the effect if the rain 
comes too soon and washes the sulphur away. In some 
vineyards they use sulphate of zinc against the peronospora. 
This turns the leaves a dull, livid blue, which gives them a 
ghastly look, especially by moonlight. 

When the grapes have safely passed through the many 



214 Italy of the Italians 

and great dangers that threaten them, and the time of the 

vintage approaches, their owners are full of 
^'vintage^^ activity. On all sides one hears a cheerful 

hammering of barrels and vats being put in 
order. In some districts the leaves are stripped off the vines 
that the sun may reach the fruit more easily. In others 
the leaves are left as a protection against hail. As the grapes 
begin to ripen, the paths leading to the vineyards are shut, 
and some child or old woman is set to watch against thieves. 
One cannot help wondering what sort of a protection they 
would be if thieves were really to appear. Occasionally, a 
fierce dog is let loose among the vines to frighten off intruders. 
It is strange enough that so little is stolen, for in many places 
there is no protection at all, no wall, no hedge, the vineyards 
running beside the open road. In the Chianti, where the best 
wine is made, the grapes are never touched until they are 
quite ripe, and three whole fine days must be allowed to pass 
ere they are gathered. The sun must have fairly risen for at 
least two hours before they are cut, as it will not do to gather 
them when damp with dew. 

With the vintage begin lively and picturesque scenes. 
Sometimes an ox cart, holding a large tun, is used as a recep- 
tacle for the grapes, sometimes tall tubs called bigoncie, into 
which the precious fruit is put as it is emptied out of the 
baskets of the gatherers. Millions of earwigs sometimes come 
rushing out of these bigoncie. They are considered as a sign of 
" good grapes." Wasps also attend the vintage in great 
numbers. In the Chianti the grapes are crushed with a big 
wooden pestle before they are put in the vats. 

When the sun begins to sink the gathering stops, and after 
supper the treading begins. A wild scene it presents in the 

big cellars, with, the lucerne flashing fitfully 
'**^Grapes*^^ on the big vats and dark laughing faces of 

the lads who are stamping the grapes. In 
the plains the pressoir is often used, sometimes driven by 
water-power, sometimes by hand force, sometimes by oxen. 



Agrarian Italy 215 

But the quality of the wine thus produced is not so good, 
as the mechanical press squeezes the stems and seeds, as well 
as the pulp, and thus gives an astringent and harsh quality 
to the liquor. It seems admitted that, after all inventions 
and contrivances have been tried, there is nothing like the 
elastic, intelligent pressure of the human foot for drawing 
from the grape all that it is desirable it should yield, and 
leaving behind all it is best to eliminate. 

There are many different methods of ultimate preparation, 
but for the first operation nothing is like the old fashion, 
Noah's way, as depicted by Benozza Gozzoli on the wall of 
the Campo Santo at Pisa. While this proceeding takes place 
day after day, night after night, with the ordinary grapes, 
the finer sorts are carefully selected and laid out to dry on 
reed mats stretched upon trestles. After a while the " must " 
begins to flow, and very sweet, agreeable, and insidious it is. 
Under its influence, the mirth grows fast and furious, now 
and then, though not often, leading to quarrels and license. 

When all the vats are ready they are walled up in the 
cellars and left to ferment. It would be as much as a man's 
life is worth to look inside that dark, wide 
C^llar*"^ place during the first days of this operation. 
Some of these cellars, under the large old 
houses, look like caverns in the mountain sides, they are so 
wide and deep. Here the wine is left for about six weeks. 
Then the selected grapes, which were left to dry, are put 
into the vats, and the wall is closed once more. In ordinary 
cases it is opened again in January, when the wine is drawn 
off. The great proprietors, however, who have large airy 
cellars, and can keep them closed longer, sometimes leave 
them shut up as long as a whole year. The longer it thus 
remains the purer and stronger it becomes. In the plains 
the wine is occasionally boiled, to hasten fermentation, but 
this process is not to be commended. The wine thus produced 
is turbid and weak, and does not keep. In any case the 
ordinary Italian wine does not keep well, as scientific methods 



216 Italy of the Italians 

of preparation are not generally employed, the peasants and 
often also the proprietors being too conservative. This is 
the more to be deplored as in her wine Italy has the potentiality 
of great riches. Some of the great proprietors, however, are 
now making wine which keeps its quality unchanged for 
years and is capable of export, and their example is being 
rapidly followed. 

One of the main causes, however, which determine the 

unequal quality of Italian wine arises from the fact that 

Italian wine is nothing but pure grape juice, 

Itl'a, W° ^^^ ^^ consequently dependent upon the 
quantity and quality of the fruit of which 
it is composed. German, French, and Spanish wines, on the 
contrary, are always doctored (" made malicious," the Italians 
phrase it), hence if the crop is insufficient in quantity other 
wine is added to the amount, if it is wanting in proper qualities 
chemical ingredients are mixed with it until the decoction 
acquires the desired body and taste. Thus, the cheap claret 
sometimes sold in England as "Gladstone" is made by mixing 
a thin inferior wine which comes from the country round about 
Marseilles, and has the proper Bordeaux flavour, with strong 
Spanish or Piedmontese wines. The Italian wine, it will be 
inferred from this, is infinitely the more wholesome of the 
two beverages and ought to be more sought after and popular. 

It is hardly likely that the making of wine in the French 
sense will ever take root in Italy. The Italian has too great 
a horror of falsified wine. Genuine wine he calls " sincere." 
And since spirits of all kinds are fortunately dearer than wine 
in Italy, wines are not thus adulterated. 

Of course, there is plenty of doctored wine sold in Italy, 
but it is reserved for the foreigners. The so-called Bordeaux 
and Burgundy furnished in the hotels, for instance, is more 
often than not Chianti " maliziato " (made malicious) with 
French bottles and labels. 

The making of cognac and of liqueurs is a new departure 
but one that has already found great favour. Some of the 



Agrarian Italy 217 

Italian cognacs are excellent, less fiery and more nutty 

in flavour than the i French. Altogether, 

Italian viticulture in Italy in all its branches is likely 
Cognacs. • n j • + 

to increase in excellence and importance. 

Another characteristic Italian product is olive oil, of which 
so much is consumed in the land itself, as it largely takes the 
place of butter in cooking. 

Oil-making, as compared to wine-making, is a serious, not 
to say a dull occupation. It is not in early autumn, but in 
winter, that the olives ripen, and in place of 
Oil-making, the lively, rapid gathering of the beautiful 
clusters of the grapes, there is the stooping 
position, and the slow, steady picking of the fruit either from 
off the tree or off the ground, berry by berry. Then comes 
the careful sorting of the olives, upon which, in a great mea- 
sure, the quality of the oil depends. " The first olives are 
gold, the second silver, the third are worth nothing," says 
the Tuscan proverb. When this operation is over, the fruit 
is put into a mill, where it is slowly crushed into a pulp under 
an enormous stone wheel moved by a simple contrivance, 
which is put in motion by water power in Lucca, that " land 
of streams," but in the drier portions of Italy by a donkey 
or an ox. This pulp, which takes a lovely purple-greenish 
hue, is then put into round receptacles woven of rope, and 
placed under a press, worked by hand with a bar. The oil 
which exudes trickles down into a vat placed on the floor 
below, in the bottom of which there is water. After this first 
pressure, which, made as it usually is of the finest olives, 
carefully sorted and washed, produces the best quality of 
oil, the pulp is once more put into the mill, mixed with a little 
boiling water, to be again pressed, producing oil of a second 
quality. A third pressure gives forth the oil for burning, 
and in the end the pulp is utilised as manure or made up into 
round cakes for burning together with the wood fires. 

When the vat is full into which the freshly-crushed oil is 
allowed to run, after having stood for a few days, so that all 
15— (2395) 



218 Italy of the Italians 

the precious liquid rises well to the top, the oil is drawn off 
into jars called in Italian " orci," some of which are so huge 
as to render the stratagem of the captain of the Forty Thieves 
in the " Arabian Nights " quite intelligible. In these recep- 
tacles the oil is left to settle for four or five days, when the 
purer oil rises to the top and is again drawn off. Occasionally 
oil- jars have two orifices, from the upper one of which the 
better oil is drawn, while an inferior kind is taken from the 
lower. Some of these jars used in olden times to be beautifully 
ornamented, but such work is hardly ever done in these days. 
The oil when first made has a much deeper colour than that 
we usually see, and has a wonderful and delicious aromatic 
flavour, but, like many other lovely things, this is sadly 
evanescent. Unfortunately, there is a terrible amount of 
adulteration carried on with the oil, sometimes before it 
leaves Italy, more often after it reaches England, so that 
some kinds of oil can be bought more cheaply in England than 
in Italy. Cotton oil, which has neither flavour nor colour, 
is said to be extensively used for this purpose. 

What olive oil is to the Italians one must live in Italy to 
appreciate. To such as like it, it is an almost perfect form 

of nourishment. Beans with oil and salt are 
"^^ Itll°" *" ^^^^ ^y ^^^ peasants a dish fit for the gods. 

It is touching to see how they will buy even 
tiny quantities of oil, as if it were impossible for them to go 
without it entirely. Foreigners often complain of the large 
amount used in Italian cooking, but, if they would but believe 
it, oil is far more digestible when used for frying than either 
butter or fat. 

In the North of Italy a great deal of rice is grown. Un- 
fortunately, it involves the risk of illness for those who plant 

and gather it, as it must grow in swampy soil. 
Ch^^^tif t Chestnuts flourish more or less abundantly 

on all the Apennines and also furnish a highly 
nutritive food, especially to the rural poor, who even make 
a species of bread out of the nuts ground into flour. 



Agrarian Italy 219 

An approximate idea of the produce of agricultural Italy 

can be obtained by learning that the cultivated lands range 

in the following decreasing order : cereals, 

Agricultural timber, vines, maize, olives, beans, chestnuts, 
Produce. ., . . , m 

Alpme pastures, rice, potatoes, lentils, vege- 
tables, fruit, hemp, cotton, flax, agrumi (oranges and lemons), 
beetroot for sugar-making, and tobacco. The latter plant 
could be a source of great gain and would be much more 
widely cultivated did not restrictive laws obstruct. The 
white mulberry is also largely grown on account of its leaves, 
required for the silkworms whose rearing is one of the most 
important and lucrative home industries of rural Italy. 

Nor must the raising of fowls be forgotten. The export- 
ation of these and of eggs is increasing annually and has 
become of great importance. And so is the raising of the pigs 
that furnish the celebrated Mortadella of the Emilia and 
Modena. 

Last but by no means least a word must be given to the 

cultivation of flowers for home, and yet more for foreign, 

consumption. These are grown principally 

CuU at^on ^^ Liguria and in Tuscany, and exported to 

England, Germany, Austria and France in 

ever-increasing quantities. It is calculated that from these 

fragile goods alone Italy gains over one million francs annually. 

And it is pleasant to note that in every department there 
is progress, financial, economic, scientific, so that with time 
and wise legislation, rural Italy has, beyond a doubt, a great 
future before her 



CHAPTER X 

INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 

The great commercial expansion, the progress made by 
industry, especially in Northern Italy of late years is some- 
thing quite remarkable. This, too, in despite 
Commercial ^j ^j^g hampering and somewhat heavy tax 
imposed upon manufactures and industrial 
undertakings, a tax which in 1905 produced an exceptionally 
large sum, thus showing an increase both in the capital and 
the labour employed. And the progress might be even 
greater but for the lamentable inefficiency of the railways, 
which seriously hampers commerce. The railways, indeed, 
and everything connected with them, are a disgrace to the 
country. They have been starved and crippled for want 
of a timely expenditure of money and choked in development 
by pedantic bureaucratic impediments, and this in a land 
whose people are the finest engineers the world can show, 
and whose labour has built half the railways, bridges, and 
tunnels on the face of the globe. 

The two chief Italian industries are those of silk and cotton. 
In the former department Italy takes the second place in the 
world's output after Japan. In the matter of cotton-spinning 
she has indeed cause to be proud, for from being an exclusively 
consuming land she now rivals the countries who turn out 
cotton goods, and not only can supply all her own needs 
but is able to export. 

There are, however, certain special industries that are 

peculiarly characteristic of Italy. Among these is the 

commercial art of the Lucca image sellers, 

I d^^'t*^ ^^^ alabasters, raw and sculptured, of Vol- 

terra, the marble blockers-out and pointers of 

Carrara and the district round, without whose able aid few 



Industry and Commerce 221 

sculptors would know how to put their statues into marble, 
the straw workers of Tuscany, the mosaics of Venice and 
Rome, the variety known as pietre dure of Florence and 
Naples, the tapestries of Rome, the papier mache sculptures 
of Lecce, the artistic pottery of Florence, Imola, Faenza, and 
Pesaro, the wood-carvings of Florence, the wrought-iron work 
of Siena, the artistic glass and beads of Venice, the choice and 
graceful goldsmiths' work made in practically all the larger 
cities with skill and taste, the laces of Burano, of Santa 
Margherita, of Como, and also in a degree of all Italy, as this 
is essentially a home industry, the imitation of antique objects 
in wood, iron, terra cotta, the falsification of Old Masters, of 
which Tuscany is the chief centre, the coral works of Torre 
del Greco, Leghorn, Chiavari and Genoa, the art furniture of 
Venice, Milan and Florence, the hotn and seed buttons of 
Milan, the candied fruits of Calabria and Sicily, the sausages 
of Bologna, the Parmesan cheeses of Reggio, Lodi and Parma, 
the infinite varieties of paste (erroneously called by foreigners 
under the collective name of maccaroni) of Naples ancj the 
district, the torroni (a species of hardbake), and mostarda (a 
kind of sweet pickle) of Cremona, the panforte (an honey and 
almond cake) of Siena — to name but the most salient. 

Wherever one travels, be it in the Old or the New World, 
bright-eyed, polite-spoken boys carrying baskets full of 

plaster statuettes, reproductions of famous 
Image Sellers, ancient or modem works of art, portraits of 

notabilities, images of the Madonna or the 
saints, are to be met with. These are the image-sellers of 
the Lucca district, wanderers by nature, but also intensely 
patriotic and devoted to their native soil, to which they 
almost invariably return as soon as they have accumulated 
a little fortune. Indeed, a merry tale constantly repeated in 
Italy maintains that such wanderers have the Lucchesi been 
from all time that the first person Columbus met with on 
landing in America was a Lucchese image dealer who offered 
him his wares. Whoever has roamed in that charming hilly 



222 Italy of the Italians 

district will note everywhere the evidences of prosperity, white 
little homesteads, bright caf6s and shops generally bearing 
foreign names, such as Villa New York, Cafe of the United 
States, Restaurant Brazil, or the Argentine Grocery Stores, 
These are the outward and visible signs of the fortunes made 
by these emigrants. They usually start upon their careers 
at about ten years old as assistant to some experienced vendor. 
They are fed and clothed by this master, who generally also 
pays them five hundred francs for the trip, that is as a rule of 
two years' duration. When the boy has learnt a foreign 
tongue and the ways of the trade he will start on his own 
account. 

These itinerant dealers can turn out a quantity of plaster 
images cheaply and yet artistically. All their products reveal 

innate feeling for form and taste. Sometimes 
Imaees ^^^^ ^^® originals, sometimes copies. In the 

latter case the models which they copy and 
generally reduce, when not famous masterpieces, are not 
infrequently the work of some clever artist who cedes to them 
the right of reproduction. Or sometimes their trained eye 
and hand permits them to reproduce works they may happen 
to have seen. Some years ago there was a great agitation 
on this account among French artists ; they did not recognise 
that cheap reproductions helped to popularise their works 
and could in no way interfere with the sale of the originals. 
The slender cost of the primary materials allows of the sale 
of these plaster images at very low prices, though the boys 
often ask as many francs as they will eventually take pennies 
rather than lose a sale. They are generally merry little rogues 
who win the buyer's heart by their pretty manners and clever 
repartee. 

The workers in alabaster, that species of white shiny stone 
that closely resembles marble, but which unlike marble 

is easy to work, as it is quite soft when first 
Alabaster" extracted from the quarries, are to some degree 

trade rivals of the plaster figurine sellers. 
That is to say they can also reproduce the same work in 



Industry and Commerce 223 

hundreds of copies, but the execution and above all the last 
finish require real artistic ability. 

Speaking generally, alabaster is found nowhere in the world 
outside of the province of Pisa ; Volterra is the centre of 
the industry, which is probably as old as the town 
itself, i.e., some 4,000 years. As the Greeks gave the 
name of alabaster to boxes for ointments, it may have been 
a box of Volterra alabaster that Mary Magdalene broke, or, 
more correctly, opened, to minister to Jesus. 

There are two kinds of alabaster, that for sculpture and a 

less fine quality for miscellaneous objects. The centre of the 

latter industry is Volterra itself, of the former 

Al* bater Florence. In both cases all the work is done 

by hand, and even the excavating from the 

mines is effected without the aid of machinery. By a process 

of manipulation, alabaster can be made to look like the finest 

white marble, and statues and busts thus " doctored " are 

constantly sold to tourists as fashioned in the nobler stone. 

There are, however, also unknown obscure artists of no mean 

value who work in alabaster. 

" Mute and inglorious," too, are the crowd of Roman and 

Florentine artists who turn out the so-called " commercial 

art," that is, cheap products, easily saleable, 

^°"Xr*^'*^ especially to foreigners, of really charmingly 
tasteful objects intended for domestic and 
household uses. Among these we may note copper imple- 
ments of all kinds, elegant little figures to hold electric light, 
terra- CO tta decorations for architectural purposes, and so 
forth. These hard-working artists do not treat directly with 
their clients. They are usually the slaves of commercial 
agents who give them their commissions and then send the 
result direct to the large shops or warehouses, or export them 
abroad. It is grievous to think that many of these men, had 
they but had a little capittd or a little help, could have 
been real artists on their own account. Of such commercial 
art Italy exports annually for a sum of over 20 million francs. 



224 Italy of the Italians 

This same regret over lost or misapplied ability refers in 

yet greater degree to those who make the false antiques 

manufactured almost entirely to meet the 

p»^eo^fif"''L°* demands of the foreign market. The craze 
raise Antiques. „ , • , , , , . . , , 

for all that is old, merely because it is old, 

irrespective at times of beauty or, it must also be added, of 

hygiene, has led to the creation of this industry. Consequently 

those who will not look at a modern Italian work of art, and 

condemn that art in no measured terms, calmly buy and fill 

their galleries with skilful pastiche, which they designate with 

high-sounding names and which all the while are the handicraft 

of the very men they feign to despise. 

This industry, too, brings in many millions to the Peninsula, 
and though it is easy to censure it on the score of ethics, this is 
but one of the many instances where in Industry and Commerce 
the demand creates the supply. 

Works executed in straw are a pretty speciality of certain 

districts, particularly of Tuscany, where the fine straw, a 

particular variety grown for this purpose, is 

Straw Wares, worked up into various objects and executed 
with great manual skill. The straw market 
held once a week in Florence under the Loggia of the Old 
Market is an attractive sight. Here are sold the bundles 
of ready-prepared straw cut into lengths for plaiting, of various 
qualities of fineness and of a rich golden hue. A quaint sight, 
too, in the neighbourhood of Florence are the straw hats 
laid out upon the fields to bleach in the sun. 

The workers in straw are as a rule women, and the industry 
is generally exercised in their homes. The wares vary accord- 
ing to momentary fashion or demand, fans, frames, sun- 
shades, baskets of every shape and size, but all more or less 
objets de luxe that reveal in their designs the taste of a popula- 
tion accustomed to feast its eyes upon lovely objects. Thus, 
for example, the laces made of straw to trim ladies' hats are 
frequently of a pure Renaissance design or have outlines that 
recall the Italian Gothic of the churches. 



Industry and Commerce 225 

All these objects are made from the plaited straw and from 
these plaits, too, are made the variety of straw hats of which 
the finest quality used to be known in old days as 
" Leghorn." 

Until Japan came into the European markets with her 

cheap wares, straw plaiting was a lucrative industry by which 

the women added substantially to the family 

pf^r'^ income. Now it is miserably remunerated. 

Nevertheless, the women still ply their clever 

fingers or their looms without rest between one domestic 

occupation and another, chatting or gaily singing all the while. 

In the roads and villages round about Florence whenever the 

^un shines, and that is often, it is a daily sight to see along 

the streets or on the thresholds of the houses picturesque 

groups of women and girls plaiting straw busily and with 

lightning rapidity, their tongues meanwhile going almost as 

fast as their nimble fingers. Nor do they seem to need to 

look at what they are doing, so skilled are they in this often 

intricate manipulation. 

The Florentine mosaics or pietra dura are less fashionable 

now than fifty years ago, still there is always a sale for the 

exquisitely accurate reproductions of flowers 

^MoScT* and fruits incrustated into frames, inkstands, 

tables or other objects. These cannot indeed 

be turned out very cheaply as it needs skill and taste to find 

the suitable shades of stone. Cheap, on the other hand, and 

largely made by machinery are the Roman mosaics, consisting 

of very fine tesserae put together to resemble bunches of 

flowers or arabesque designs. Once an art it has now 

degenerated into the cheap and tawdry. 

Venetian or Byzantine mosaic is that variety which in the 

early centuries of the Christian era formed the splendid and 

durable decoration of the churches. Indeed, 

Venetian ^j^g artist Ghirlandajo was wont to maintain 

jV10S3.1C 

that mosaic was the only painting for Eternity. 
This kind of mosaic consists of the skilful putting together of 



226 Italy of the Italians 

small pieces of enamel, marble and gold leaf, between layers 
of glass, technically called tesserae, of different colours, so as 
to produce the effect of a picture or painted design. The 
process is partly artistic and partly mechanical. Venice is 
still the headquarters of this industry, and we have it on the 
authority of Sir Henry Layard that the Venetian mosaicists 
of the present day are not inferior to the best of those who 
worked in St. Mark's, and that when criticism is directed 
against a mosaic coming from a Venetian atelier it is not 
the atelier that is to blame but more probably the author of 
the cartoon for the copy. 

A traditional Italian industry that is not progressing is that 
of tapestry-weaving. This work exacts great patience and 

also a large expenditure of time ; ten years 
Tapestry ^^^ often required to finish one piece of 

tapestry. Hence, few persons are found to 
follow this craft in our busy, fevered epoch, and it is with 
difficulty that the high standard of the Tapestry-Making 
Institute of S. Michele at Rome, founded in 1710 by Pope 
Clement XI, to rival that of the French Gobelins, is 
maintained. 

Modelling in papier macke, to which I referred above as a 
speciality of the Terra d'Otranto district, is chiefly employed 

to form large statues, often over life-size, 
Papkr^Mfchl adapted for churches that cannot afford 

figures made of more expensive materials. 
It is a queer sight wandering through the picturesque rococo 
streets of Lecce to come at times upon whole groups of such 
painted or half-painted saints and virgins standing out by 
their " wild lone " by a house door or in some piazza drying 
in the sunshine. These statues are really made with great 
skill and considerable ability and are not always confined to 
sacred themes. They are occasionally original creations due 
to obscure artists, profoundly enamoured of the plastic arts 
but deprived by lack of means from working in a nobler 
medium. For this is one of the peculiar gifts of the Italian 



Industry and Commerce 227 

artizan employed on work that demands some responsibility 
or personal initiative, that he grows fond of his subject or 
his material, and seeks to put into it something of his own 
personality. In short, they are all endowed by nature with 
artistic souls, though these may have been overlaid by 
centuries of poor taste and repressive government. Power 
of execution was never deficient, it was merely badly applied. 

In the ceramic arts Italy is returning to her own best 

traditions. She has been distanced by other nations in the 

domain of porcelain, but she still holds her 

"^^^Artt"^^^ place and is highly distinguished in the 
domains of earthenware and majolica. The 
first potter who successfully revived the old Italian majolica 
ware and applied it to purposes of modern life was Cantagalli, 
whose name being interpreted is " Crowing Cock," as his 
trade-mark illustrates. The firm had long existed as makers 
of common pottery. It was a trifling incident that caused 
them to branch out into decorative work. One day a poor 
whitewasher came to Signor Ulisse Cantagalli saying : "I am 
dying of hunger, and if I do not find work and food I shall 
drown myself in the Arno." Signor Cantagalli, seeing he was 
serious, then and there took him into the works and set him 
to paint leaves and flowers on pots. The whitewasher took 
kindly to the occupation and became a clever painter of 
majolica, in which art he also instructed his two sons. The 
new products created a furore, and were eagerly bought up 
by the public, and the whitewasher soon had a whole army 
of men working under him. Cantagalli is extremely successful 
in adapting to his own pottery the designs and shapes of 
various styles of work. His ware is made of an inferior 
quality of earthenware on which is applied a superior quality 
of enamel, with which very fine results are obtained. The 
painting is all done by hand and executed on the raw 
glaze. 

The Marchese Ginori also owns a factory which dates from 
the days of the Grand Dukes. China as well as earthenware 



228 Italy of the Italians 

is turned out by him, and also excellent copies of 
Capo di Monte, of which he owns some of 
An Old ^YiQ original models. The Arte della Ceramica, 
whose products took the gold medal at the St. 
Louis Exhibition, also make choice and dainty objets de 
luxe, though there is at times about their output too pro- 
nounced a flavour of that restless species of design known 
as I'art nouveau. 

One of the peculiar features of this Italian ceramic industry 

are the large number of men working in a small way, almost 

alone, and turning out excellent and original 

^"wo'rk^^ work, which from the fact that they produce 

it alone and not in factories, preserves for it 

an individual character that never lapses into the purely 

commercial or mechanical. 

Individuality is also met with in the so-called peasant ware, 
the rough majolica used by the people for their plates and 
dishes of which almost every province has 
Peasant Ware, its own speciality, and which, rude in design 
and workmanship as it often is, is also fre- 
quently of real beauty both as regards colour and quaint 
drawing. It is in little villages and local markets that speci- 
mens of this ware can be picked up, and as it is growing rarer, 
the people desiring like their betters to eat off porcelain, 
it is also getting to be of some value and worth collecting 
apart from its decorative charm. 

An interesting new industry is that of the so-called 

Signa ware, a species of terra cotta, in which reproductions 

of old and modern sculpture are made with 

Indu^tT wonderful success. In this medium, 

by some process kept secret, this fragile 

substance is rendered harder than stone and toned 

to an agreeable yellowish tint ; it is also possible to reproduce 

the very aspect and character of bronze. 

These Signa terra cottas, sold at a relatively low price, 
permit of the possession in house and grounds of some of the 




«rv,™ 



Industry and Commerce 229 

masterpieces of plastic art. The centre of the industry is 
Florence. 

A great revival is noticeable in the making of wrought-iron 

objects, such as gates, lanterns, etc., once a glory of the Italian 

artizan, and excellent specimens of this craft 

G d ""^°" are being turned out, especially in Siena, Venice, 

and the neighbourhood of Florence. The 

Italian blacksmiths have not lost their cunning and the 

modern work can stand beside the ancient which it usually 

copies or imitates, in accordance with the fashion of the day. 

And here again it is the independent worker rather than the 

factory-system that produces the best results. 

A number of independent workers also exist in the lace 
industry, which, is to be found more or less all over the Penin- 
sula. In Venice and the islands, however, 
Id ti^^ where the art was beginning to decline, it 
has been systematized under the patronage 
of Queen Margherita and a committee of ladies, and needle 
and bobbin laces of the finest types are again to be obtained, 
as the industry is ever increasing in excellence and quantity 
of output. 

Of course, this is essentially a woman's industry. Another 

woman's industry is the breeding and rearing of the precious 

silkworms on whom depend Italy's most 

Sl^worms lucrative export. This occupation requires 

less than two months to bring all the requisite 

operations to a happy conclusion, from the hatching of the 

eggs to the spinning of the cocoons. Constant attention, 

cleanliness, and an even temperature are the chief requisites, 

and during the last week of the caterpillar's life the women 

and children, to whose care they are almost entirely confided, 

can rarely sleep, for the creatures need incessant feeding and 

tidying. So much space do they also occupy towards the end 

of their life that it is not unusual for a peasant family to camp 

out during this short period, leaving the house entirely in the 

possession of the silkworms. And what can they not devour. 



230 Italy of the Italians 

these little worms ? The stripped branches of the white 
mulberry, specially grown for their nutriment, testifies to 
their voracity and accounts for the bare look of the trees in 
early summer. It is calculated that one ounce of eggs eats 
in the course of its life over a thousand kilos of mulberry 
leaves, and requires as much oxygen to breathe as six men. 

Before these eggs are placed on the market they are sub- 
jected to most careful microscopic examination. Here, again, 
women are employed, but education and specialist knowledge 
come into play in this department. By most scrupulously 
exact methods species are selected, breedings are effected, 
and infected seed is eliminated. In this way the race is 
constantly improved with happy results for the precious 
golden threads that the caterpillar spins around itself. Besides 
this, Italy possesses a large number of factories where the raw 
silk is worked up into materials, velvet, piece silks, ribbons, 
shawls and what not besides. The centre of this industry 
is Como and its environs. 

The coral trade is on the decrease, in part owing to the 
caprices of fashion, in part to the primitive system on which 

it is carried on, the fishermen with primeval 
^oral^Trade^^ instruments, tearing up everything that 

comes into their way, and so destroying the 
young branches and checking reproduction. To discover 
a coral bank a man needs an experience which becomes almost 
an intuition, and this the Italian fisherman possesses in a high 
degree. The invention of coralline and other chemical 
substitutes for the real article has also ruined the fishing and 
spoilt the trade. Corals are chiefly worked by women. One 
class of goods that always finds purchasers are the little red 
coral horns attached to the watch chain that are commonly 
worn by both sexes throughout Italy, but more particularly 
in the superstitious South. These horns are supposed to 
keep off the Jettatura, or Evil Eye, in which almost every 
Italian, even of the educated classes, believes more or less 
firmly. 



Industry and Commerce 231 

Celluloid, and other base imitations, have also hurt the 

tortoiseshell industry, but in the South it still holds its own, 

and the export is considerable. The sulphur 

Tortoiseshell and trade, once the monopoly of Sicily, has found 

Industries. ^ serious competitor in Japan and in chemical 

discoveries. This decline in a once flourishing 

industry represents a serious problem for the island, whose 

misery is already sufficiently great. 

Such, all too summarily, are the chief Italian industries. 
As I have shown, some few are in decline, the greater number 
are advancing by leaps and bounds. Some (that are quite 
new) have also been introduced, as, for example, about 1900 
the various manufactories of beetroot sugar that has already 
almost supplanted the cane sugar which Italy was formerly 
obliged to import. Unfortunately, the excessive price of 
sugar has not been lowered in consequence as was hoped ; 
for the moment the industries began to flourish and the output 
to He appreciable Parliament clapped a tax upon the manu- 
facture that almost equalises the duty upon the imported 
variety. For the Italian Exchequer has not yet learnt that 
saccharine substances are a needful nutriment for the young 
of the nation and persists in considering it as a luxury. In 
this unwise manner, too, it stifles many a young enterprise. 
The woollen industries, in the Middle Ages an Italian art, 
have revived considerably of late, and fine 
Revival of clothes are made that rival the English in 
Industries. excellence. The same applies to the making 
of felt hats. 
There is great activity in all iron and steel foundries and 
in the naval dockyards. Besides the great Government 
arsenals of Spezia, Venice, Castellamare, and 
Iron and Steel Xaranto, there are private firms of ship- 
builders that are kept active meeting the 
demands of the home and foreign markets. In one year alone 
such private yards built over two hundred vessels. 

An important and progressing industry is that of 



232 Italy of the Italians 

paper-making. Particularly noted is the hand-made variety, 

and more particularly that of Fabriano in the 
Paper-making. Marches, the oldest factory in Europe, 

dating from the fifteenth century. Thence 
has issued much of the paper of which Italy has furnished 
the material on which to print the bank-notes and obligations 
of several Continental States, and this hand-made variety, too, 
is sought after by artists and in its inferior but still excellent 
variety is so cheap that it is used as a common writing paper 
and sold by the kilo. Much of the cheaper writing paper sold 
in England under English names is also made in Italy. 

In all that pertains to the poligraphic arts Italy is active 
and in the front rank. This specially applies to typography 

and fine printing of all kinds, as well as to 
^yP°eraphy and cartography. In the making of maps the 

Italians excel all other nations ; those of 
the Geographical Institute of Florence, which is dependent 
on the Ministry of War, are unrivalled. In this connection 
it may be mentioned that, together with the excellence of the 

bicycles made in Italy, the Italian Touring 
Touring^Club ^^^^ (T.C.I.) is considered the best of its kind, 

and this on the testimony of non-Italian 
members. The subscription is very low, only six francs a 
year, and for that sum, unlike the French and English clubs, 
the members receive all its publications gratis. Its guides 
to the provinces of Italy and its maps, profiles of roads, etc., 
both inland and foreign, are beyond praise. Tourists who 
are bicyclists will find it well worth their while to join this 
T.C.I. Many hotels make special reductions for the T.C.I. 
members, and in no cases are prices raised, as is believed to be 
not infrequently the case for other clubs. The Club has 
instituted " repair boxes " in many out-of-the-way places, 
has inaugurated shelters on mountains and other thoughtful 
conveniences. The head offices of this Club are at Milan. 
Bookbinding of a most attractive kind, especially in 




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Industry and Commerce 233 

parchment and vellum after the style of the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries is another Italian industrial 

Bookbinding, art. Of this the headquarters are Florence, 
Siena and Rome. 

It is pleasant to note that Italian productions are now 

honoured in the land of their origin, while until recently 

foreign goods were always demanded and 

Native "coods. native products despised. This naturally 

led to the falsification of trade-marks. Matters 

even went to the length of provisionally exporting certain 

goods which were then re-introduced into the kingdom as 

foreign wares. 

The port of Genoa has assumed such commercial importance 
as to rival that of Marseilles. Indeed, by nature Italy is 
designated for a commercial country, owing to its physical 
conformation, its immense sea-board, and the many naturally 
excellent harbours. 

Small shops selling the same objects are still the rule in 

Italy, but here, too, " general providers " are beginning to 

appear in the larger cities. There are also 

^°Stores!^^^ three very important and flourishing co- 
operative stores, with branches in various 
centres that supply all the needful alimentary and household 
requisites — the Unione Militare of Rome, the Alleanza 
Co-Operativa of Turin, and the Unione Co-Operativa of Milan. 
All these are open to the general public as well as to share- 
holders. The advance of the co-operative spirit in Italy is 
in fact one of the most marked features of the new century. 
Wherever the nucleus is sufficiently large, each village or class 
has its co-operative society, and the movement is only impeded 
from ramifying yet farther and deeper by the necessity for 
credit imposed upon certain sections of society, such as small 
officials or workmen who are not paid regularly, and hence 
cannot themselves pay cash down. Nevertheless, it is 
calculated that over four thousand co-operative general stores 
exist at this moment in the Peninsula. 

i6— (23Q5) 



234 Italy of the Italians 

Notwithstanding, trading on a petty scale holds its own. 
There are still found in Italy wandering pedlars who roam 

from village to village carrying their heavy 
Pedlars. packs either on their own or some donkey's 

shoulders, vendors of umbrellas, of hosiery, 
of cheap jewellery, of popular songs. 

A flourishing trade, too, is that of the tavern-keeper, 
especially in and about Rome, where wine is sold at every 

street corner or at every few miles along the 
T ^^k r ^^^^- Their sign-boards often flaunt queer, 

high-sounding names and also display huge 
blackboards on which is inscribed in cubital figures the price 
of a foglieita (half-a-litre). This is sometimes accompanied 
by the three words " Est, Est, Est," that puzzle a stranger. 
The origin of this custom is thus told. In the long ago past, 
a prelate who loved good cheer and good wine, having occasion 
to visit Rome sent his servant ahead to taste and test the wine 
at the various taverns he needed to pass, bidding him write 
the word " Est " wherever he found the wine praiseworthy. 
The man wrote the word " Est " on a number of taverns, but 
on one he found the liquor so excellent that he wrote " Est " 
three times. 

Happily, all this wine is sound and of really excellent 
quality, and happily, too, the Italian workmen still prefer it 
to absinthe or brandy or other vile forms of brain and 
health-destroying spirit. 

A great source of riches for Italy are her mineral and 
thermal waters, of which every region possesses a number, 

many of which rival and surpass in medicinal 
Medicinal qualities the famous spas of Germany. 

Indeed, this is a fountain of wealth that has 
not been sufficiently tapped as yet. The healing properties 
of the waters are not known as well as they should be outside 
the Italian borders. This arises partly from the fact that 
Italians are slow to comprehend the uses of liberal advertise- 
ment. A certain reticence, admirable in its origin, causes 



Industry and Commerce 235 

them to shrink from praising wares they know to be good. 
It is only slowly and owing to foreign influence that advertising 
has come not to be regarded as a form of charlatanry. The 
table waters, too, that the soil furnishes in such variety, are 
all good of their kind and deserve to be more widely known 
and exported. 

Finally, there flourishes in Italy more than elsewhere in 

Europe, what by a new form of phrase is known as the 

" Industry of the Foreigner." This constant 

C^ering for influx of tourists has created other special 
industries to meet the demands made by the 
strangers, and above all keeps employed the hotels of every 
kind and sort wherewith the larger and smaller cities are 
crowded. It is calculated that this commerce of entertaining 
the foreigner brings an annual income of over three hundred 
million francs to the Peninsula. It is further stated that the 
gold these strangers {foresUere — men from the woods, the 
Italians call them) bring in makes it easy for the Italian 
Rentes to be paid in gold without the need to buy the precious 
metal at a high rate of interest. 



CHAPTER XI 

UNDERGROUND ITALY 

Although the purpose of this book is to treat of the Italy 
of to-day, and not of that of yesterday, which, rightly or 

wrongly, is more often the one that attracts 
^robkm^* the tourist, still a passing word must be 

devoted to what is one of the most difficult 
problems with which modern Italy has to deal, in fact in 
familiar parlance her White Elephant. This is the Italy 
under the ground, the submerged land, whence her 
culture sprang, and which is still replete with interest and 
beauty, whose claims are insistent and on whose behalf the 
foreigner is even more clamorous than the native-born. 

For the native-born is continually being met with the 
question, where the rights of the living come into conflict 
with those of the long-since-departed, as to how much of the 
all too scanty public store of wealth shall be deflected from 
the crying and imperative needs of the quick and be devoted 
instead to excavating and preserving the evidences of the 
dead. This knotty point the foreigner as a rule finds 
no difficulty in solving to his own satisfaction in favour of the 
dead. He comes to Italy principally to see its artistic trea- 
sures, its antiquities, and the more of those are available 
the better he is satisfied. It is not so simple for the Italian. 
He feels that he, too, has a right to exist upon his native 
soil, and regards with scant favour the uprooting of vineyards 
and olive gardens, and the razing of houses, in order to lay 
bare some hidden passage or relic of the long ago. In 
Rome above all this problem has assumed an acute form ; for 
since the chief evidences of the ancient civilization are situated 
in the city's centre, it has been forced to extend its borders 
outwards, thus growing far larger than need be and leaving 
uninhabited tracts within its very core. 



Underground Italy 237 

Yet, notwithstanding all this, and notwithstanding the often 
ill-informed and unintelligent criticism of strangers, modern 
Italy has done and is doing her duty by the records of her 
glorious past. 

Whoever visits the Roman Coliseum may see on one of 

its arches a commemorative stone whereon is written how 

Pope Benedict XIV consecrated the Flavian 

^theSieutiT^ amphitheatre to the Christian martyrs. 

This decision was arrived at in 1741, and its 

purpose was to impede the continual abstraction of stones 

from the Coliseum, which was being in this way destroyed 

piecemeal, the public regarding it as a convenient quarry. 

Incredible though it may sound, with stones thus abstracted 

in the Middle Ages there were constructed a number of 

the finest and most famous Roman palaces. The Barberini 

Palace for instance was entirely constructed from materials 

thus purloined, whence arose the Roman saying " Quod non 

fecerunt Barbari fecerunt Barberini." 

This little fact demonstrates in what esteem antique 

objects were held in the past, and just in that epoch, too, 

which we now consider the most artistic. It 

in^Excalatlons ^^^ thanks to the new legislation of Italy 

that ancient Roman theatres, villas and 

temples have been disinterred, excavations of far-reaching 

interest undertaken, important historical documents brought 

to light, and valuable artistic objects rescued from wanton 

destruction. 

This is in large measure due to the initiative of a Roman, 
the celebrated doctor, Baccelli, Professor at the Roman 
University, who has also several times held the post of Minister 
of Public Instruction. His incentive and his measures have 
created a real enthusiasm for the culture of antiquity. 

For other reasons, too, the study of archaeology and art 
history has taken a notable development in Italy. One 
of these, and not the least important, has been the 
institution of a school of Italian archaeology in Rome where 



238 Italy of the Italians 

a special training is given to students and degrees bestowed 

that entitle them to hold posts in the various 

School of museums, galleries and art centres of the 

Archffiology. Peninsula. The course of studies is of three 

years' duration, two of which must be spent 
in Italy, and one abroad, preferably in Greece, and those 
who enter the school must already have taken their 
University Degree in letters. 

Attached to the Ministry of Public Instruction is a general 
administrative department " of Antiquity and Fine 

Arts." It is this department that issues 

Department of orders and instructions regarding all excava- 

Fine Arts. tions and under whose jurisdiction stand all 

the museums and galleries of the land. The 
work is thorny and full of knotty questions, and the depart- 
ment is greatly hampered in its activity by lack of funds. 
Besides this central administration the care of the excavations 
and monuments is confided to a regional commission, to whom 
are subject the local officials, the inspectors of excavations 
and monuments ; these last in the smaller centres are often 
students of antiquity who exercise this function gratuitously 
and for pure love of the subject. Then, too, all buildings of 
any historical or artistic importance are being gradually 
taken under Government protection and pronounced "national 
monuments," which means that even the owners cannot 
destroy them, or pull them about, or change their funda- 
mental character, as was too often the case in the past. 
Further, a most careful catalogue of all objects of worth, 
all pictures, statues, tapestries, articles of virtu, is being made 
through the length and breadth of Italy, for the purpose 
of putting a check upon the expatriation of treasures that are 
regarded as a portion of the national patrimony. 

Excavations to unearth the evidences of the various 
civilizations that lie hidden, as in a palimpsest, under the 
successive layers of the Italian soil, are carried on in 
various portions of the land, in Sicily and Latjum, in 



Underground Italy 239 

Magna Grecia and Etruria, and in the regions of ancient 

Parthenope. But the most important that 
Excavatfons ^^^ being undertaken at this moment are 

those in Rome, and more especially those in 
the Roman Forum, once the centre of Latin life. It is to 
help cover the heavy cost of these labours that admission is 
charged to those desirous of visiting these sites, though this 
source of revenue does not nearly meet the outlay. 

In Rome it is Lanciani and Boni to whom are due the 
latest discoveries in this antiquarian field of research. 

Giacomo Boni is a genius in his own line, who 
Discoveries ^^ ^ species of archaeological second-sight falls 

as though by mere lucky chance upon the 
most important sites and thanks to whom the whole history 
of early Rome, founded too often on intuitions and guesswork, 
will have largely to be re-written. It is he who has found the 
key to it in the remains of the Rome of the Republic and of 
the Kings, and even of the earlier Latin settlers. He has, 
among other most valuable discoveries, traced the true 
direction taken by the via Sacra, found the site of the 
Comitium, which was the place where the Roman people held 
their meetings in the days when they were divided into thirtj^ 
Curiae, and discovered the much-discussed Niger Lapis. 

This Black Stone, concerning which there has been so much 
talk, and which even formed the goal of an international 

pilgrimage, has been designated as the tomb 
Blacks1:one °^ Romulus, or at least the grave of the man 

who for centuries was held to be the epony- 
mous founder of the Eternal City. If this could be proved 
the claims of legend and history would be reconciled, but 
polemics still rage hot around this question, and there are 
many who hold that this Lapis Niger (a square of ground in 
the Comitium paved in black marble of a kind rarely met 
with in Rome) dates from a much earlier period, while others 
go to quite another extreme and consider it a recent restora- 
tion. Under the Black Stone was found an inscribed 



240 Italy of the Italians 

pyramidal cippus or slate. Its inscription has agitated all 
archaeologists and philologists, and opinions are as many and 
various as the men who propound them. Some hold that 
here are written a Table of Laws dating from the first kings 
of Rome, others that it deals with religious injunctions. 
Some go so far as definitely to maintain that it holds the Laws 
of Numa. The last word has not yet been spoken and perhaps 
never will be. 

In the Regia, or house of the King, the oldest edifice in 
Rome, where the Pontiiices also had their official resi- 
dence, were found, when it was recently laid bare, some very 
coarse antique vases, that are held to date from the era of 
Numa, the second king of Rome. 

Other important discoveries were made with regard to the 

ancient site of the Vestals' House and the shrines committed 

to their care. Here were found many statues 

vIJtlls^HiTiSe °* *^^ ^^^^^ Vestals more or less well pre- 
served. Their names are written upon the 
pedestals. In one case the name has been erased, because 
the vestal probably became a Christian, as the date is late, 364 
A.b. The great bell of the BasiHca Aemilia, built 180 B.C., 
has also been re-discovered ; probably more important still, 
at least as far as the eye is concerned, is the isolation of 
the Temple of Antonius and Faustina, dating from 141 B.C., 
which some years ago was half -hidden by modern constructions 
and by the silting up of the soil. 

As an instance of how the knowledge of history is modified 
by all these excavations, I may name the Cloaca Massima, 
which is now proved not to date from the 
^Massinm ^ epoch of King Tarquin, as was always main- 
tained, but from the last period of the 
Republic. 

There are many other interesting and important finds 
which the traveller can see for himself on the spot, or the student 
read about in the many handbooks that are issued, and which 



Underground Italy 241 

only concern us here in their indirect effect upon early history 

and the need for modern students to re- write and re- cast it. 

The excavations in Sicily interfere less with the rights of 

the living than those of Rome, as most of the interesting 

relics of the Hellenic civilization remaining 

Excavations in jj^ ^^^^H lovely island are situated in spots 

Naples. iiow deserted. This is not the case, however, 

with Naples and its environs. It is constantly 
cast up against the Italians, for instance, that they do not lay 
bare Herculaneum, that buried city which, judging from the 
treasures there unearthed, must still contain objects of rare 
value and interest. But those who so plead leave out of 
consideration that Herculaneum lies beneath the two populous 
towns of Resina and Portici ; squalid, ugly towns if you will, 
but inhabited by hve human beings who would not know 
where to turn if they were ejected from their home. This 
is not the case in dealing with Pompeii, where only rather 
poorly cultivated land needs to be expropriated in order 
further to extend the excavations over the whole length 
and breadth of the ancient city. 

The museums of Italy, in which her treasures are garnered, 
are, of course, of deep interest, and as a rule these treasures 

are both intelligently and artistically dis- 
"^^ ^SSy.'"^ °^ played. Some of the custodians, who have 

issued from the modern archaeological schools, 
are artists in their own lines, as, for example, Signor Milani, 
keeper of the Etruscan Museum at Florence, who has put into 
position in the gardens of the Institute a number of Etruscan 
tombs, reconstructed exactly as they were in their original 
sites and dispositions ; Professor Salinas, who has taken all 
the dry-as-dust character out of the archaeological remains 
that are under his care in the Museum of Palermo ; Felice 
Barnabei, the arranger of that ideally beautiful National 
Museum in the Baths of Diocletian at Rome where the 
statues are blended with and relieved by green trees and 
gay-coloured flowers, 



242 Italy of the Italians 

Every province, too, has its own museum of local antiqui- 
ties, and many of these are also excellent in arrangement, as 
for example, that of Volterra, where the Etruscan funeral 
urns are disposed according to epoch, material and subject. 

In short, despite foreign cavillers, full justice is done by 
modern to ancient Italy, and in this department, too, there is 
only praise to bestow. 



CHAPTER XII 

MUSIC 

That the Italians are musical and fond of music in the most 
popular and widest sense of the term is beyond question, 

though as a proof to the contrary the traveller 
Church Singing, will often point, and not unjustly, to the 

deplorable nasal singing in the churches, 
where both organ and human voice seem afflicted with 
chronic catarrh. This defect, however, is likely soon to be 
universally remedied, as the present Pope, who happens to be 
really musical, is recalling the Church to its own better 
musical traditions and has enjoined that the traditional 
Gregorian music, i.e., plain song, shall take the place of the 
pot-pourris from operas and other mundane melodies that used 
to be too frequently employed during the most solemn functions 
with results that were certainly not edifying. Still it must 
in justice be added that such proceedings did not appear to 
Italians to strike a false note. They are gayer and more light- 
hearted than the Northern nations, and thus the church, though 
it is to them also the House of God, does not appeal to them 
with that awe, that sense of remoteness and aloofness that are felt 
by the English worshippers. It is to them really the house of 
their Father, in which they feel at home, into which they 
can enter at all moments, in all emergencies, and in every 
garb. This is a charming trait in the Italian character which 
foreigners, from lack of complete comprehension, do not 
sufficiently appreciate and often misjudge. 

But to return to the church music. This had fallen into 
much decay, despite the fact that both Verdi and Rossini 

wrote many compositions to meet the special 
s ''^^^d^M °^ needs of the Roman service ; and it required 

the intervention first of Pope Leo XIII, and 
after of Pope Pius X, to recall it to its own best traditions. 



244 Italy of the Italians 

On this account sacred music is now passing through a period 
of serious revival and time and thought are being bestowed on 
its cultivation. Thus, in several of the larger centres, com- 
mittees of music-loving gentlemen and ladies foster and en- 
courage the performance of some of the most famous musical 
Masses, subscribing towards the expenses of the orchestra and 
singers. Moreover the demand has increased the supply, and 
many of the better composers are writing church music. Nota- 
ble among these are two men. One of them, Enrico Bossi, is 
by profession an organist and has composed much for his own 
instrument as well as for the piano. A concert oratorio, 
entitled " Paradise Lost," and a musical setting of the Song 
of Songs are much admired both for their melodious character 
and their musical correctness. More generally known is the 
young deacon, Lorenzo Perosi, born at Tortona in 1872, 
whom the Pope has nominated to the post of conductor of 
his famous Sistine Chapel choir. Before this 

Ch ^ 1 Ch"^r appointment the Sistine choir was directed 
by the eunuch Mustafa, and to this day the 
singers in that world-famed chapel are all eunuchs, the Roman 
ritual not permitting of the singing of women in church. 
This physical condition on the part of the men is supposed 
to lend a special beauty to what are called their "white" 
voices. However, with the march of progress this particular 
type of singer is growing more rare, as parents are less and less 
inclined to sacrifice their sons to the barbarous and decidedly 
anti-Christian demands of the Pontifical choir. 

Perosi, who had prosecuted his musical studies in Germany, 

endeavoured, nevertheless, to liberate himself from German 

influences, and while not neglecting the help 

''"^o^f Peros?°^ ^° ^^ gained from the German and Italian 
masterpieces in this line, he tried, and with 
success, to give a modern character to his music, basing it upon 
the modern science of instrumentalism and pervading it with a 
modern spirit. In 1897 he produced his first set of oratorio 
Trilogies, The Passion, the Transfiguration, and the Resurrection 




thoto by 



Giacomo Brogt, Florence 



LORENZO PEROSI 



Music 245 

of Christ. In these he sought to fuse the styles of Bach 
and Palestrina, to utiUze Wagnerian effects, and at the same 
time to clothe the whole with a modern and Italian character. 
These church musical dramas excited a great interest on their 
first performance, and Perosi's talent was unanimously pro- 
nounced as interesting and strong, even if a trifle too theatrical 
for more sober tastes. They have been followed by many 
others, all treating of New Testament themes, though his 
latest oratorio, " The Death of Moses," is inspired, for the 
first time, by the Old Testament. It is said that he also 
intends to set to music a sacred drama with the Apocalypse 
for its theme. 

Perosi's oratorios are performed not only in churches but 
also in concert halls, and are commonly conducted by him 
in person. 

But opera remains as it has always been, the truest expres- 
sion of Italy's musical life. Indeed, music in Italy has always 
practically meant opera and opera only. 
The Italian j^ jg ^j^g national form of art and appears to 
correspond to something in the Italian nature, 
which is less attracted to the more abstruse and scientific 
character of instrumental music. There was a moment when 
the stars of Italian opera seemed to have set. Their works no 
longer dominated the musical stage. Then there arose that 
extraordinary and versatile genius, Giuseppe Verdi, a man 
able to stand beside Meyerbeer and Wagner, and Italian 
opera once more held its high place in Europe. 

Certainly Verdi's genius was in many respects unique. 
From his first to his last work, during an activity extending 
over sixty years, he never grew mannered or 
Verdi's Genius, monotonous, never copied himself, and con- 
tinually progressed in his art until in his 
eightieth year, in his farewell to the world, he produced not 
only an opera full of youthful vigour but one that introduced 
in his Falstaff a new note into operatic art. The libretto for 
this Falstaff was written for Verdi by the poet-musician, 



246" Italy of the Italians 

Arrigo Boito, and is a free adaptation from Shakespeare. 
This same poet had previously adapted Othello for Verdi's 
composition, in a drama in which it is lago rather than 
Othello to whom is assigned the chief role, this lago being 
a very devil in human shape. 

From the very outset Verdi was the darling of his country- 
men, and this not only because his music was perfectly under- 
stood and appreciated by all, but also because he ministered 
to the patriotic spirit of the Italians, arousing overwhelming 
enthusiasm long before the notable years that followed 1859. 
Indeed, his very name served as a covert means of patriotic 
expression. For in the days when it was treason to wear the 
tricolour, or to shout "Long live the King of Italy ! " the 
people would shout "Viva Verdi!" which being discomposed 
was meant to express : Viva V (Vittorio) E. (Emanuele), 
R. (Re), D. (d'), I. (Italia). 

When Verdi passed away with the dawn of the twentieth 
century there passed away with him the man who had stood 
for musical Romanticism in Italy, and who had introduced 
colour and sharp characterisation into Italian opera. Indeed, 
Verdi resumes in his person and in the sequence and develop- 
ment of his work the whole Romantic movement from its first 
commencement to its last results as exemplified by Wagner. 

It is " Aida " that first marked Verdi's modernity. It has 

been remarked that the chief feature of Italian opera is 

melody, while that of German opera is 

" Aida." harmony. In Germany the orchestra gives 

colour and tone, in Italy it is only employed 

as an accompaniment to the voice. When the Khedive of 

Egypt commissioned Verdi to write for him an opera that 

should celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal, the Italian 

composer chose for his subject a theme culled from the 

history of the Pharaohs, and thus originated " Aida." With 

this work the musician definitely abandoned the old style 

of Italian opera, and in place of isolated airs sung by the 

various performers, substituted dramatic scenes. He still, 



Music 247 

as a true Italian, clung to melody, but orchestra and voice 
were utilized more as an ensemble, as it is done by Wagner. 
At the same time he succeeded in giving an archaic colour 
to the music of " Aida " that suited the theme and text. 

After Verdi it is Arrigo Boito who is the strongest of the 
modern Italian composers of opera, though his musical fame 
so far rests upon a single work, " Mefistofele," 
Ooer t''**W k ^^^^'^ upon the second part of Goethe's 
" Faust." This was an important contribu- 
tion to the history of Italian music, for it was the first attempt 
to fall in with the Wagnerian precepts. Indeed, Boito, like 
Wagner, wrote his own libretti, and it is quite a question 
whether he is not even greater as a poet than as a composer, 
and in which department his influence has been most 
far-reaching. 

So far " Mefistofele " has had no successor, though for 
many years past it has been said that Boito was putting 
to music his poetic tragedy of " Nero," but though a few 
intimate friends have been permitted to read some portions 
of the long-promised work, so far it has not issued out of the 
composer's study, though twenty years have passed since it 
was announced as completed. The trouble is that Boito is a 
keen critic as well as a creator, and it is difficult if not impossi- 
ble for him to be satisfied with his work, and till he thinks it at- 
tains to his own high standard he refuses to give it to the world. 

But though Boito has not written much, his influence over 
contemporary Italian music has been most potent. This is 
especially noticeable in Ponchielli's masterpiece of 
" La Gioconda," of which Boito also wrote the text. 

Nor is it absent in the music of Pietro Mascagni, that young 

composer, who became world-famous at one flash in 1890 

with his musical setting of Verga's tragedy of 

pSro M^cagii ^^^^^ Sicihan life, " Cavalleria Rusticana." 

' The son of a baker at Leghorn, Mascagni 

was brought up in an environment that was everything rather 

than artistic, but feeling the sacred fire within himself, and 



248 Italy of the Italians 

determined to make a name and a career, he broke away 

from home and led a hand-to-mouth existence as conductor 

of a band, a partner in travelHng companies, and what not 

besides, until he had attained to a practical knowledge of 

orchestration such as no theorising could provide. It was 

while thus roaming that he learnt that the Milanese music 

publisher, Sonzogno, had offered a prize for the best one-act 

opera upon any subject, and which if accepted he would stage 

at his own expense. Without delay Mascagni resolved to 

enter for the competition, and though the time was short, 

for he had seen the announcement late, he contrived just to 

finish his score in time, and after a long period of anxious 

waiting heard that the first prize had been adjudged to him. 

The success it met with was instantaneous and overwhelming 

and, despite some ungracious adverse criticism, has been 

maintained ever since. The fact is that despite certain 

commonplaces and a few plagiarisms, Mascagni revealed a 

gift of melody, and a real capacity for naturalistic and 

individual rendering, two qualities which have justly been 

called the two characteristic movements introduced into 

musical art in modern times, and evidences of that modern 

progressive tendency that manifests itself in all intellectual 

departments. 

Unfortunately, the success of " Cavalleria Rusticana " 

turned Mascagni's head, and instead of resting on his oars 

and studying, he hastened to give to the world 

Mascagni's ^ successor. This, " L'Amico Fritz," and 
Later Works. 

later " I Rantzau," both inspired by 

Erckmann Chatrian's idyllic Alsatian tales, were pronounced 

tiresome both as to theme and treatment, and though written 

with more care than " Cavalleria Rusticana," pleased less. 

By this care Mascagni had lost his freshness and did not gain 

in artistic force. Nor has he in the other works that succeeded 

these as yet redeemed his early promise of giving lasting and 

stable work to the world. But Mascagni is still young and 

repeated failures may teach him their valuable lessons. 




l-Iiolo by 



Giacomo Bro^i, Flounce 



PIETRO MASCAGNI 



Music 249 

Meanwhile he has been distinguishing himself by a series of 
clamorous lawsuits undertaken against his American 
impresario who conducted him on a concert tour in the 
United States, and against the City of Pesro, Rossinai's birth- 
place, where he had been entrusted with the directorship 
of the Musical Academy instituted by the maestro in his 
native town, and from which Mascagni was dismissed 
as neglectful of his duties, a verdict against which he 
appealed to the law but with scant success. 

A very different type of man is Giacomo Puccini, who, like 

Mascagni, belongs to the Young Italy school, and who also 

therefore desires to free his country's national 

Operas of ^^^ from the empty conventions of the past. 

Giacomo Puccini. _ , . . , ^^•' ... . ^ ^ ^ 

To begm with, Puccmi, born m Lucca of 

musical ancestors, had the advantage of living in a musical 
atmosphere in childhood and youth, and thus received a 
careful training fitting him for his profession. His first work, 
" Le Villi," which estabhshed his reputation in Italy, is 
founded upon a weird northern tradition and was perhaps 
scarcely adapted to operatic purpose, but the rare imaginative 
merits of the music caused the weakness of the libretto to be 
overlooked. His next opera, " Edgar," was a failure, after 
which he kept silent for some years. But when he once more 
challenged public opinion, it was to score a great success with 
his " Manon Lescaut," founded upon the Abbe Prevost's 
famous romance. The opera at once attracted by its dramatic 
strength, its melodious beauties. It was followed by "La 
Boheme," founded upon Henri Murger's delightful romance 
of that title, in which the graceful music, the orchestral colour- 
ing subtly reproduced the dominant character of the original. 
His latest work, a setting to music of Sardou's " La Tosca," 
has met with much popular favour. 

Puccini is still young. Much may, therefore, be still looked 
for from him, and it is certainly interesting to learn that Verdi 
regarded him as the most promising of his successors. 

A rich banker of Reggio in Emilia, Baron Alberto Franchetti, 

17— (8395) 



250 Italy of the Italians 

has distinguished himself by the writing of various operas 

which, if not notable for melodious qualities, 
F ^^h"tf ^^^ remarkable for their profound knowledge 

of counterpoint and their rich instrumentation. 
Of these the most successful in the popular sense of the word 
are " Asrael " and a melodrama, " Germania." 

Like Mascagni, Ruggiero Leoncavallo sprang in one night 
from obscurity to fame with his opera, "I Pagliacci," a work 

equally unconventional, realistic, and attract- 
^f^Le^ncavalfo ^^^' Leoncavallo, who is also his own 

librettist, wrote this opera at the instigation 
of the liberal Milanese publisher, Sonzogno, to whom contem- 
porary Italian music owes so much, and who also helped 
Leoncavallo to produce it before the public. The story of 
the strolling player and his faithless wife is too familiar 
to need repeating here, but the very simplicity of the 
subject dealing, as did " Cavalleria Rusticana," with 
a tragedy in modem peasant life, made it stand out as a 
suitable contrast to the usual operatic plots drawn from 
romance or from history adapted to stage exigencies. 

Like Mascagni, too, Leoncavallo followed up his success by 
failures, and especially great was the failure of his trilogy 

entitled " I Medici," which he had hoped 

His Later would prove an Italian " Ring der Nibel- 
Failures. ^ " 

ungen." It was judged as neither original 

nor effective, and was clearly the work of a man who had not 

yet found his true style. It failed because naturalism carried 

to such lengths as Leoncavallo strove to carry it is not possible 

in opera, which, after all, is an unnatural and artificial art. 

Music can only paint in broad lines. 

In 1905 Leoncavallo produced at Berlin an opera entitled 

" Der Roland von Berlin," a work written at the special 

request of the German Emperor, whose approval it has won. 

So far the work has not been heard outside of Prussia, and is 

probably too local to please elsewhere. So far, therefore, it 



Music 251 

would certainly seem that, like Mascagni, Leoncavallo had 

said all he had to say in his first opera. 

Beside these, who are the most famous, there are other 

writers of opera whose works are popular but rarely pass the 

Alps. Worthy of mention among these are 

Other Nicola Spinelli, a Roman, who won the second 

Composers. . . , „ 

prize m the bonzogno competition with a 

three-act opera called "A Basso Porto," consisting of scenes 

from Neapolitan life, and full of pretty, catching melodies. 

Pierantonio Tosta, who has also written a musical melodrama 

dealing with Neapolitan fisher-folk in his " Santa Lucia," 

Umberto Giordano, who has treated of the criminal association 

called " La Mala Vita," and many others. It is worthy 

of note that so many composers choose themes taken from 

the contemporary life of their land, thereby affirming 

their sympathy with the modem movement. 

It is a curious fact that in the writing of light operettas, as 

distinguished from operas, the Italians have not distinguished 

themselves, despite the attempts of a few 

Ooerettas composers, and despite the fact that this form 

of art is highly popular in the land. 

It is, however, too early to judge of any of these younger 
men. Still, even if they have not won back for their country 
the sceptre that was slipping from her grasp with Verdi's 
disappearance, at least they have given sure and brilliant 
proof that the musical genius of Italy is not fading and that 
a new era is dawning for music with a new generation, so that 
United Italy may hope for a renaissance of musical art as well 
as of national prosperity and power. 

In the department of instrumental music modern Italy is 

weak. Indeed, there cannot be said to exist a modern Italian 

school of instrumental music, and those few 

^"^lEr*^' who cultivate this branch of the art produce 

works that have no local colour and 

are chiefly modelled upon German and French 

standards. Nor is Italy as prolific in good executants 



252 Italy of the Italians 

as she was when her players and leaders of orchestra 

were sought for all over Europe. In singers, however, 

both male and female, she is still 

Italy Rich m j.j^j^^ there being some quality in the 
Itahan atmosphere that favours the develop- 
ment of full, mellow voices. There is a decadence, however, 
in the vocal methods, and what was known as "il bel canto" 
is growing rarer. This is said by the Italians to be due to 
the German music or music in the German style, which does 
not permit of the traditional methods of singing and hurts 
or forces the voice. This reason, however, does not account 
for or excuse the tiresome tremolo that Italian public singers 
of the newer school affect, which is wearisome to listen to and 
detracts from purity of tone. Still, the good system continues 
to be taught in Italy, and strangers go thither in crowds to 
learn it and Italians also go abroad to teach it. 

In the writing of facile songs of melodious tone adapted 
for drawing-room singing the Italians excel. Here their 
native gift for easy melody comes into play. The most 
famous as well as the most deservedly popular among these 
is Francesco Paolo Tosti, who has for many years made 
London his home. His graceful, original and expressive 
harmonies are familiar all the world over. 

Closely allied to this class of music are the popular songs 

of the people, often bom none knows how or where 

or when. Of these the stornelli and rispetti 

Popular Love ^f Tuscany are for the whole of Central Italy 
Songs. -^ . 

the most characteristic expression. A stor- 

nello is a little poem of three lines, one short one of five 

syllables, and two long ones mostly consisting of hendeca- 

syllables. The five syllabelled verse rhymes 
The Stornello. with the second of the two eleven-syllabelled, 

while the first long line ends with an assonance. 
It is usually a flower to which the graceful, dainty little verse 
is addressed, but its true inner appeal is to love, either pleading, 
successful or rejected. Many of these stornelli are traditional, 



Music 253 

but in most cases the singer either makes his own to suit his 
individual needs or modifies those extant. They are sung 
to a mandoline accompaniment, and are as a rule intoned in a 
minor key, and penetrated with a languorous emotion. Some- 
times the stornellatore, or singer of a stornello, is assisted 
by a chorus. In that case an intermezzo is interpolated that 
resembles the burden of a violin. As a rule the singers of 
stornelli seek to cap songs and verses and on warm summer 
evenings their improvised music makes dreamy echo in the 
lovely night landscape. 

Another popular form of love song is the rispetto, which as 
the name implies, is a respectful greeting from a lover to his 
beloved. They consist of four, six, eight or even ten lines, 
though the most common form is the six-lined strophe. Guitar 
or mandoline accompaniments, more often than not 
improvised, assist the voice. 

In the Tuscan mountains at all seasons, even in winter, the 

Serenata or Inserenata are common. This means that a 

party of youths armed with guitars, mando- 

The Serenata. lines or violins will set forth after sunset 
to sing of the love, hopes or sorrows of one 
of their number under the window of the girl he wooes. The 
verses are alternated with brief instrumental melodies, brightly 
decorated with shakes and arpeggi. In many districts these 
melodies are called Passagalli, a characteristically Tuscan 
word to designate this method of playing of violin, guitar, 
or mandoline to fill in the short pauses between the singing, 
that allow time for the Improviser, for these verses are usually 
improvised, to collect his thoughts and ideas. Such parties 
of singing swains have been known to continue their exercises 
from sunset to sunrise. 

It is in the fair month of May, however, that this custom 
most obtains, and it is then not so much the 

May Songs, loved object that is feted as the month 

itself, that herald of summer. Here, again, 

we meet with another of those atavistic traits so common in 



254 Italy of the Italians 

Italy, for we know that the Romans were wont to celebrate 
with songs and festivals the return of Spring. This wandering 
around at night to sing the advent of the lovely season is 
called Cantar Maggio (to sing to May), and the songs are called 
Maggiolati. 

It is, however, only in Tuscany that the popular songs have 

this distinctively individual character both as regards words 

and melody. The songs sung by the populace 

Dialect Songs, in the other regions are the Canzonetti set 
to music by some educated composer and 
hence not the spontaneous expression of the people's soul. 
In other districts, too, dialect is employed, especially the 
guttural Neapolitan and the sibillant Venetian, while the 
Tuscan is the pure speech of Dante and Petrarch. 

Still the Neapolitan songs have a cachet that is all their 
own, and reflects the hot, passionate temperament of the 
region which is in such sharp contrast with the cooler, more 
sentimental and slightly cynical Tuscan. The prototype of 
the modern Neapolitan canzone can be sought in the popular 
" Funiculi, funiculi " of Denza, all alive with brio and 
sparkling with animal joy. 

Every year some new songs enrich the popular Neapolitan 

repertoire. At the annual fete of the Madonna of Piedigrotta, 

a village just outside Naples, that falls in the 

^M*'d*' °^ *f ^ summer, are first heard the songs that will 
Piedigrotta. be sung in all the length and breadth of Italy 
during the coming year. It is a species of 
popular competition in which of late even noted composers 
have taken part. It is amusing to be present at this festival 
and to listen to the returning crowds all singing in a mass 
the successful song. For every Italian is quick at picking up 
a tune. Thus, the day following that in which a new opera 
has been performed, it is a common thing to hear the workman 
going out to his work, the baker's boy or the milkman bringing 
their wares, whistling or humming the most attractive air, 
and they will repeat it, too, with exactness and sentiment. 



Music 255 

And many an Italian who owns a piano, even if he cannot 

read a note, will pick out the new tunes upon the instrument, 

even though he may only have heard them once. 

^For every Italian can play and sing, even though often 

untaught. Work grows under the hands of the factory 

workers while one of their number sings some 

Singing in well-known ditty and the others fall in with 
Factories. , ^, . • , n 

a chorus. Their power to smg at all moments 

was in the days of the Grand Duke Leopold regarded as a 
species of barometric test of their content. " If they still 
sing they will pay the new taxes (cantano, pagano)," was his 
favourite saying. At Naples while the stevedores are watch- 
ing the arrival of a steamer they sing in chorus to beguile the 
tedium of waiting. At Venice, the city of serenades par 
excellence, beside the companies that peregrinate the Grand 
Canal, performing rather for the diversion of tourists than for 
their own pleasure, there can be heard as of old the curious 
monotonous chant to which the piles have always been driven 
home. This is set in motion by the foreman and the hands 
follow suit. Each line ends in a prolonged eh or oh to mark 
the downward haul on the rope. These songs are mostly 
invocations to the Madonna to give her help to the labourers. 
The learning of singing, it may be mentioned, is obligatory 
in the Government schools. But Italy also possesses various 
Governmental Music Schools, where every 
^'schods*^*' branch of the art is taught either gratis or 
at a very small cost, provided the pupil can 
pass the entrance examinations. 

Opera, as I have said, is the national form of music, and, 

no matter how old and often-repeated the work chosen to be 

performed, the " theatres of music " — as the 

At the Theatres. Italians call them in contradistinction to the 

" theatres of prose " (plays) — are always 

crowded with every class of audience. And it is the people 

who are the severest judges and hiss most mercilessly if a singer 

sings false. When a new work has been hissed in a town it is 



256 Italy of the Italians 

useless to repeat it there, and if hissed elsewhere it must be 
removed from the repertoire. Unfortunately, from the same 
lack of funds and also from the same itinerant methods of 
which I spoke concerning the drama, opera is rarely as well 
performed as it should be in Italy. The chief exceptions are 
Milan, and above all Bologna, the true home of serious music. 
Too often the orchestra is insufficient and this also because 
for lack of funds to maintain a permanent orchestra a director 
is obliged to have recourse to scratch companies, in which 
many of the players are not even professionals, but men who 
exercise this art as a secondary means of livelihood or as a 
diversion. 

There has recently been a marked revival of interest in 
bands of wind instruments, and this also extends to the Army, 

where the playing too often left much to be 
Village Bands, desired. To own a band is the ambition of 

every village and every district, and as a rule 
one of these or a choral society is to be found in every centre, 
recruited from among the labouring class, who will play for 
the benefit of their fellow citizens on festal days (and Italy 
has many such), and will grind hard at practising their 
instrument even after a heavy day's work. These bands 
are frequently subsidized by the Commune, which does not, 
however, pay the executants, who lend their services with much 
pleasure ; it however recompenses the director and also 
puts at the band's disposal a locality for practice, lends the 
instruments and furnishes the uniforms. And of these uniforms, 
cut in military style, the men are most proud. It is in the 
south that the best of these bands are met with. Some 
large cities, however, like Rome and Venice, can boast of 
really excellent companies. To subsidize these bands Italy 

spends over two million francs annually, a 

Performances. P'^^^* °^ ^°^ largely they enter into the 

national requirements. In return these bands 

must play in the public piazza on all solemn occasions. 

Where the military are quartered it is their band that has to 



Music 257 

fulfil this service. No greater proof of the Italian's love of 
music can be found than to be on a Sunday in one of these 
squares at the playing of_ the band. People will stand for 
hours, wet or shine, hot or cold, to listen in silence to the 
stirring strains, marking approval or disapproval at the end 
of each piece. At the funeral of some eminent citizen these 
bands generally accompany the procession from the house 
of the defunct to the church, playing funeral marches or 
solemn airs. 

These open-air performances may be defined as the concerts 
of the people. For though each larger city possesses a 
Philharmonic Hall in which, chiefly during 
Concerts. Lent, concerts are given, these are all exceed- 
ingly high-priced, and are more often private 
speculations to enable some singer or player to make him or 
herself heard to a select public. Concerts of good music at 
popular prices are almost unknown. 

Musical criticism is exercised in Italy as elsewhere by the 

newspapers, and this criticism is not always impartial. The 

public, however, forms its own judgments 

Musical quite independently of the Press, and hot 

and eager will such discussions prove at 

times in cafes or other meeting places. A few purely musical 

papers exist, such as the Rivista Musicale, a serious 

publication written with knowledge and critical acumen. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ITALY AT PLAY 

" A Carnival Nation " — such was the contemptuous epithet 

levelled at Italy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth 

century by superficial observers, who did not 

Amusement ^^^® ^^^^ account that the political conditions 
of the times excluded Italians from active 
participation in their country's life and compelled their 
energies into a frivolous groove. Still, it is beyond question 
that this happy-natured, light-hearted people love amusement 
— and why should they not ? — and festa is one of the first words 
a foreigner learns to understand when he comes to the 
Peninsula. 

These feste are of two kinds, civil and religious, and between 
them they absorb a considerable number of days in the year's 
course. But, besides the fixed feste, there are the ordinary 
diversions of every-day life. Italy is so varied in its manners 
and customs owing to its varied geographical and civil develop- 
ment, so multiform in its traditions, that it cannot be judged 
from one point of view. Its intimate soul has not yet attained, 
and perchance owing to racial divergence, never will attain, 
to the homogeneity of, for example, England, Germany, or 
France. 

In the larger cities of northern and central Italy, with the 

exception of local and traditional fetes, there no longer exist 

special forms of amusements. In important 

Public centres like Turin, Milan, Genoa, Florence, 

Amusements , _ , .,11 

in Cities. ^^^ Rome, amusements are available every 

day, and at every hour. Of the Italian love 

for theatre-going I have already spoken, and of the large part 

this occupies in their life. Of recent years operettas as well 

as cafe chantants have proved attractions to city dwellers. 




Photo by 



Chas. Abeniacar, Naples 



DRAWING OF THE LOTTO 



Italy at Play 259 

The public likes to be gently amused while discussing a cup 
of coffee or a glass of beer, listening to light, graceful strains 
or to songs that provoke a smile and demand no intellectual 
effort. 

It is in these localities that a foreigner can note the extreme 
sobriety of the people. A cup of coffee costing 25 centimes, 

an ice or a glass of beer will be all the refresh- 
^°^ItalLns *^^ ment partaken of during a sitting of many 

hours. The Italian is frugal and abstemious 
both in eating and drinking, and does not need to refresh his 
inner man every few hours like his Northern brethren. 

It was at one of these caf6s that the quick-change artist, 
Fregoli, fkst made his appearance and his name, rising from 
being a common soldier of the ranks, who played these tricks 
to amuse the weary hours of an Abyssinian campaign, to 
world-fame and wealth. 

There is perhaps nothing that strikes a visitor to Italy with 
so much surprise as the number of people to be met with in 

the streets at all hours of the night and morn- 
Late Hours, ing, and the question is continually asked 

" When do the Italians sleep ? " for late and 
early is there noise and movement. There are certain cities, 
for instance, Genoa and Bologna, in which the nocturnal 
life seems as intense as that of day. The fact is, the Italian 
seems to need less sleep than a Northerner appears to require, 
whether by habit or social convention or method of life. 
These nocturnal pedestrians are usually habitues of the 

theatre, the cafes, and the gaming clubs. 
Gambling. Gambling is a vice particularly prevalent in 

the upper classes, to the ruin of many an old 
patrician fortune. In the lower orders it takes the shape of 
playing in the Government Lotto, of which more anon. The 
men referred to above would think they could not sleep if 
they had not first gone in for some amusement, however 
innocent. 

The mass of the population, however, goes to bed about 



266 Italy of the Italians 

midnight, and rises early. They concede to themselves the 
Visits to pleasure of theatre-going or cafe-visitiiig 
Theatre and chiefly on Sunday or Thursday (Thursday is 
Cafe. ^jjg conventional weekly half-holiday), or any 

festival days, local or national. The popular cafes are 
packed on Thursday and Sunday nights, and if the evening 
is warm the overflow sits in the street or square on which the 
cafe abuts. For on those nights the good burgher does not 
go out alone but is accompanied by his wife and children 
or other female relatives, all dressed out in 
Standard^f Dress ^j^^-j. Sunday best. And it is astonishing 
what a brave show is this Sunday best, how 
women whose relatives have minute salaries, and who, 
therefore, cannot have much money to spend on dress, manage 
to appear in the last fashions and in the freshest-looking 
clothes. The fact is, the Italian woman is clever with her 
hands and her needle, and she also has a social standard of 
her own which she rigidly maintains. She would rather stay 
at home than look shabby or be out of the mode, and she will 
make any sacrifice, and so for the matter of that will the men, 
to far figura, as they call it, that is, put in a good appearance 
in public, however untidy or shabby they may be in private 
life. As a rule, indeed, these good clothes are reserved for 
the street and are taken off and carefully cleansed and put 
away the moment the house is re-entered. Further, both 
Italian men and women are always well coiffe, and that adds 
to their natty appearance, the women usually having beautiful 
hair. 

So far does this ambition to far figura carry all social 
classes, that in the poorer south, where some of the im- 
poverished aristocracy cannot afford to keep 
VeWde"°" a carriage and pair of horses of their own (and 
to keep a carriage is regarded as a social 
imperative in certain circles) a number of families will club 
together to use a common vehicle on fixed days of the week, 
and by an arrangement of change of doors they are each 



Italy at Play 261 

able to drive out in a coach that bears on its panels their 
particular coat of arms. 

In the north of late an interest has sprung up for sport 
and athletics, in bicycle races and automobile riding, and 
these competitions also attract crowds, but, happily, the 
deplorable betting element has not followed suit. 

In the north, too, an improved understanding of hygienic 
conditions has created the good habit of country outings on 

festival days. The Milanese are specially 
Country Outings, devoted to this form of recreation, and the 

cheap and rapid electric communication that 
exists between that city and the lovely Lake Country gives 
them a large choice of goals. And there is this great advantage 
that in every village, no matter how small, there will always 
be found an inn where good, cheap and tasty food can be 
obtained. For the Italian, if he does not eat much in bulk, 
knows how to eat well and wholesomely, and as every Italian, 
man or woman, can cook, they will not tolerate ill-prepared 
viands. In this way, during the fine season, entire families 
will turn out for a day's airing, including the smallest baby 
(Italians love children too well to leave them out of their 
treats), and also generally including the servant, if only one 
is kept, for they are good to their domestics and reckon them 
as members of the family circle. 

The richer classes, like the richer classes all the world over, 
emigrate in the summer to their villas (hence the expression 

villeggiatura), to the mountains or to the sea. 
Summer Villas. At the seaside a very lively mondain existence 

is usually led. The Italian is gregarious, he 
finds no pleasure in watching in solitude the sad sea waves. 
He likes to bathe in company and enjoy his evenings in society. 
At the seaside resorts, such as Leghorn, Viareggio, Rimini, 
Venice. Palermo and many others, a regular course of 
balls, concerts, swimming-matches, picnics and what not else 
are in daily swing. 

It may really be said that the old carnival has been replaced 



262 Italy of the Italians 

by these spring and summer fetes. For the official Carnival 

that falls before Lent has practically disap- 

Disappearance peared, whether from the fact that the nation 
of the old 5^ ' ,, , ... . . 

Carnival. '^^^ grown more serious or that this species of 

diversion does not meet the requirements of 

modern life. Before the Unification of the Kingdom, in the 

old petty States into which Italy was dismembered, only 

bound together by the Laws of the Church, Carnival was the 

time exclusively set aside for diversion. Only then were the 

theatres open, and only then were masked Corsi allowed 

with the throwing of flowers and bon-bons and all the rest 

of the mad revelry. But punctually at midnight of Shrove 

Tuesday this had to end. The Government gave the signal, 

all the theatres had to ring down their drop curtains and the 

city once more returned to its normal somnolent existence. 

Now all this is changed. It is possible to have Carnival 

all the year round for aU who wish it, provided they have 

time and money. Still the Carnival tradition 

ald^^an^'n"^ lingers on, and at that season masked balls and 

dancing of all kinds are more frequent, the 

theatres, the circuses, are more visited, and endless series of 

dances are given in all families. In less prosperous homes it 

is not rare for the guests to give to their hostess some fixed 

quota that shall cover the cost of a modest buffet. The 

Italians, however, do not come together to eat and drink. 

Dinner-parties are rare events, and usually reserved for family 

reunions, and there are regular at home evenings at which no 

refreshment of any kind is served. The guests really come 

together to converse, and happily in Italy conversation is 

not a lost art. The Italians of both sexes and all ages love 

to dance. Few entertainments, even of the most serious kind, 

such as a lecture, but end in what is called fare due salti (a hop 

or two). All through the winter somewhere or other dancing 

is going on for every class. The small Government officials, 

the workmen, belong to so-called " Recreation Clubs " that 

are numerous in every large city and exist not only in the 



Italy at Play 263 

smallest, but even in the villages. These organise balls for 
their members and here the mothers gladly 
^*cPb*'°" accompany their daughters, often not with- 
out a secret hope that they may there find a 
life-partner. For in Italy for a girl to remain unmarried is 
still regarded as an eccentricity and rather a family disgrace, 
but, as in France, a dowry, no matter how small, is an indis- 
pensable requisite, and every father knows this and saves and 
provides to the best of his ability. The girls, too, prepare 
their trousseaux of household and personal linen years before 
a marriage can even be contemplated. All this helps towards 
family frugality. 

But, to return to our Recreation Clubs, these are of all 
kinds, mutual benefit clubs, reading rooms, sometimes even 
little gambhng centres, and they generally represent some 
social group. Thus, there are clubs for Government employes, 
for tradesmen, for workmen, and so forth. In smaller 
centres there are usually only two, one for the better classes, 
one for the workmen. 

Besides these forms of amusements Italy has fetes that are 

peculiar to herself, and these are sharply divided into civil 

and religious. These civil fetes, which rather 

Civil Ffetes. answer to an English Bank Holiday, and are 

also school holidays, include the anniversary 

of Victor Emmanuel's death, the King and Queen's birthdays, 

the anniversaries of some of the Risorgimento battles, the 

day on which Charles Albert gave his nation a Constitution, 

and above all the 20th of September that commemorates the 

breaching by the Italians of the Porta Pia at Rome, the 

incorporating of that metropolis into the Italian Kingdom, 

in fact the keystone of the arch. 

Noble though these fetes are in purpose, and wise and 
desirable as it is that a people's patriotism should be thus kept 
aflame, truth compels me to admit that these feste in practice 
are generally rather dull and pompous affairs, in which a 
good deal of official red tape and prosaic official speechifying 



264 Italy of the Italians 

reigns supreme. For the ordinary citizen, except for the fact 
that the shops are often closed half the day, these fetes make 
little difference, though his eye is gratified by the public 
fountains playing their full jets of water, by the picturesque 
carabinieri, or government police, wearing their best and most 
picturesque holiday attire, with a coloured plume stuck 
into their cocked hats, by the pretty Italian flag flying from 
practically every house, making gay splashes of colour in the 
often gravely sombre streets, and last, but to the Italian of 
the middle and lower orders not least, by the playing of 
municipal or military bands in one or more of the city's open 
spaces. 

It is, however, in the traditional local fetes, or those that 
still more or less depend upon the Church, or take origin 

froip her, that the Italian soul reveals itself. 
Religious Fetes. For here as ever the Roman Church shows 

herself astute in her deep and subtle compre- 
hension of humanity's needs, be it in the matter of pleasure 
or of pain. Of these feste it is no exaggeration to say that not 
only each of the hundred Italian cities has its own, always 
quite individual and different from that of the others, 
but even every little village. This variety is mostly induced 
by the circumstance that each inhabited centre has its local 
saint, popularly known as its " celestial patron." Thus, 
Rome has St. Peter, Milan St. Ambrose, Florence St John 
the Baptist, Venice St. Mark, Palermo St. Rosalia, Naples 
St. Januarius. There are few of these fetes which cannot be 
traced back in origin to pagan times, and in many cases 
their modern expression is but a Christian adaptation of the 
older religious customs. It is usually on the birthday of 
the tutelary saint that his fete is celebrated with religious 

and civil rejoicings. Except in the smaller 
Church centres church processions are no longer 

allowed in the streets, but wherever such 
processions still take place in the open they are invariably 
a picturesque and attractive sight. More often than not they 



Italy at Play 265 

occur after sunset by torchlight, which adds to the effect and 

shrouds the frequent tawdriness of dress and appointments. 

Some of the old church banners, lamps and brocades, however, 

that are borne on these occasions, are splendid heirlooms 

that many an antiquity collector now covets in vain, as the 

new laws prohibit the sale of church properties. To walk 

in the procession is still esteemed a high distinction in the 

smaller places, and parents will save and scrape to provide 

their little ones with the outfit for an angel, a John the Baptist, 

a St. Catharine, a monk or a nun ; and very pretty do these 

little ones look in their rig out, and wonderful often is their 

physical endurance, for they may walk for hours under the hot 

sun or in the late evening. Now and again a little angel or a 

St. John will give out, and will be carried awhile in his 

father's stalwart arms, making a comic and incongruous 

picture. 

As a rule these fetes end in a general illumination and in 

those fireworks so dear to the Southern heart. Illuminations 

in Italy are always pretty, and generally the 

Illuminations smaller the place the prettier. Only in large 
and Fireworks. , ^ K. . i ,. ,./- • 

towns and on some of the public edifices is 

gas or electric light utilized. The usual method is still the 
charming way of placing lighted candles in every house window 
or tiny terra-cotta lamps that burn oil and shed a soft, 
tender sheen, and also of slinging little coloured glass lamps 
across the streets like garlands. These terra-cotta lamps, 
which cost less than a farthing each, are the exact replicas 
of those unearthed in Roman and Etruscan tombs. 

Where things are done with more luxury the assistance of 
specialist illumination artists are called in, such as Fantappi^, 
the Florentine, who was summoned to London on the occasion 
of King Edward's Coronation. He is skilful and original, too, 
in arranging what are called torchlight processions, often 
instituted if some distinguished personage visits a city, but 
these are not torchlight processions in the ordinary accepta- 
tion. A whole scene is imagined, generally of fruits or 

It— (8395) 



266 Italy of the Italians 

flowers, which are reproduced on a large scale, resulting 
in walking bouquets or orchards under which the human 
bearers of the lights are concealed. 

The further south we go in Italy the greater is the enthu- 
siasm for fireworks, and some of these are beautiful as well 
as characteristic. But what the populace loves above all 
is that they should go off with great bangs, and the more 
noise they make the better the people are pleased. Another 
southern delight on festa days is to fire off squib crackers 
and other small explosives, and frequently on the feast of 
a celestial patron these deafening reports begin at dawn 
and never cease till long past sunset. In the south some of 
these explosives are even taken into the churches and fired 
off at the most solemn moment of the service, such as at the 
Elevation. 

Another favourite pastime are the tombole drawn in the 
public squares. These tombole are peculiar to Italy, and 
often arouse the curious speculation of 
The P^l^'c travellers as to their nature. The game is 
played much after the manner of the Gov- 
ernment Lotto which takes place once a week at the same hour 
in various centres, and which, since the balance in the account 
is always in its favour, is a source of great gain to the State. 

In tombola the players can choose ten numbers out of 
ninety. These numbers are inscribed in the register, the 
player retaining his card and paying the prize fixed plus 
50 centimes or a franc. At a certain day and hour, in a public 
place, the numbers are drawn and a money prize is given to 
whoever is first to proclaim that all five numbers of his ticket 
have been drawn. His claims are at once verified and if 
exact the drawing continues, the tombola, or the gross sum 
promised, going to the person who has in his hand ten of the 
numbers drawn, and who first makes this announcement. 

These public tombolas have to be authorized by the Pro- 
vincial Prefect, and are often held for charitable purposes. 
To show how gains are made it must be remembered that the 



Italy at Play 267 

prizes for five lucky numbers may be 300 or 500 francs and 
600 or 1000 for the tombola, while thousands of tickets are 
sold, perhaps as many as five thousand at one franc each. 

The public displays intense interest at these public extrac- 
tions, eagerly discussing the numbers, which all have a 
popular significance, of which the clue is to be read in the 
" Book of Dreams," perhaps the most widely-read volume in 
the Peninsula. For instance, 13 means death, 22 a carriage, 
77 means crooked legs, and so forth. 

If some poor fellow has missed announcing his good luck at 
once he is made a butt and laughing-stock, and the hisses 
and whistling are deafening. The curses of those who have 
lost by one number are also loud and long, and swell the 
general clamour. 

A variant of this game is sometimes played in family circles. 
There are also so-called Telegraphic Tombolas, authorized by 
the State, for which the tickets are sold all 
^^-J^'^sraphic ^^gj. Italy, but which are drawn in one city 
only. Forty-five numbers are publicly ex- 
tracted, and the result is communicated by wire and published 
in the newspaper, leaving a margin, fifteen or twenty days, 
for the lucky winner to send his ticket to the Committee. 
The prize is distributed among those who among the first 
45 numbers have won the tombola. 

Popular, too, are the cuccagne that oblige the player to 

swarm up a well-oiled pole and try to strike a flag that 

crowns the summit, the possession of which 

The Cuccagne. entitles him to a prize. Of course, few if any 

reach the top, and tumbles and failures 

provoke general merriment. 

Fairs are yet another attraction, but these resemble fairs all 
the world over, with their circus and conjurors and clowns 
and merry-go-rounds. 

Florence has a curious local form of fair that occurs the last 
three Sundays in Lent. It varies in locality as in name, 
being known respectively as the fair of the Curiosi 



268 Italy of the Italians 

(Curious), the Innamorati (Enamoured), and the Furiosi 

(Insane). The objects for sale are modest, 
^ ^j^-t"**"* consisting chiefly of hazel nuts strung into 

long chains, of melon seeds that the people 
love to chew, of a local thin wafer cake called brigidini that 
are made fresh every few minutes coram publico, of fruits and 
sweets. The three names are derived from the circumstance 
that these fairs are supposed to lead to matrimonial combina- 
tions. The Curious, that is, the youths, go in search of a 
sweetheart, and if they find her at the first fair they return to 
the next already enamoured, and to the last insane with love. 
Another purely Florentine custom is the street-boy amuse- 
ment on Thursday in Mi-Careme to pin ladders cut out of 

paper on the backs of unconscious passers-by 
Street whom they then hoot in a local derisive 

phrase, that runs something like " You're in 
for it ! " The origin of this foolery is rooted in the Middle 
Ages and embodies a bitter satire on nuns who, according to 
the populace, received lovers at night by means of rope-ladders 
hung from their windows. The origin of this joke, however, 
is forgotten, and on this day all the Florentine pastry-cook 
windows are full of cake and chocolate ladders of all shapes 
and dimensions that constitute the joy of those who may not 
play in the street with cut paper. 

And as the Italian loves to laugh, April Fools' Day is still 
celebrated. The most elaborate public and private jokes 
are organized, often requiring weeks of preparation and carried 
through with a persistency worthy of a better cause. Even 
the gravest newspapers prepare pitfalls for their readers. 

Indeed, if we study the calendar we can discover some local 
and curious feste going on somewhere in Italy on every day of 

the year. They are sights that no student 
Local Fetes, of manners should omit, and some of them 

are really splendid artistic spectacles, besides 
being unique of their kind. Among these a high place belongs 
to the so-called " Palio " of Siena. 




Photo by 



H. Button 



PALIO OF SIENA 



Italy at Play 269 

For Siena, among all Italian cities, is the one where mediaeval 

traditions still survive. Twice a year are celebrated those 

wonderful horse-races, on July 2nd, in honour 

It\^na° °^ ^^^ Visitation of the Virgin, and on 

August 16th, in honour of her Assumption ; 

the former being rather a full-dress rehearsal for the latter. 

The fact that the festa falls in the dog days prevents the 

presence of the ordinary tourist and has perchance helped — 

low be it spoken— to retain for it its frankly ItaUan colouring. 

It is needful first of all to know that the city is divided into 
seventeen contrade or wards, each bearing a name, such as the 
Tortoise, the Goose, the Eagle, the Caterpillar, of which each 
has its especial emblems and colours, and its fierce local 
patriotism. Each contrada also owns a horse, a jockey, a 
trumpeter, a drummer, a standard-bearer, pages, and a 
banner bearing its colours and emblems. Each has also a 
peculiar dress, that usually consists of short jackets of satin, 
silk or velvet, and trunk hose, generally parti-coloured, or 
else of coats of mail. The pages and some of the older men 
too, wear wigs of flowing locks. 

The race itself is run in the splendid Piazza del Campo, 

the shell-shaped concave amphitheatre facing the grandly 

solemn Municipal Palace, and literally all 

Racecourse Siena and the neighbourhood pours out to 
see it. The throng that fills the space 
inside the circular track set aside for the race is a 
wonderful mass of gay colour and of movement, the large 
Leghorn hats worn by the Sienese contadine and the perpetually 
fluttering fans being a special feature. 

But before the race is run each horse, accompanied by its 

jockey, is taken to the parish chapel of its contrada to be 

sprinkled with holy water and blessed. For 

Preliminary ^j^jg ^ special form of service exists. When 

Functions. , f , , , -^ • 

the established hour at last sounds, and it is 

always near to evening, the Palio is begun by a stately pro- 
cession round the Piazza of all the comparse of the contrade, 



270 Italy of the Italians 

of the standard-bearers and trumpeters of the Commune, of 
a car decorated with the banners of all the contrade and the 
prize Palio. In this splendid pageant over 200 persons 
take part, all clad in fourteenth century costume, so that it 
seems some old fresco come to life. A unique feature is the 
sbandierata, a method of displaying the various banners 
peculiar to the Sienese and which requires much practice. 
With extraordinary agility and grace the standard-bearers 
cause the flags to revolve about their necks, pass them between 
their legs, whirl them around their bodies in a number of 
fantastic figures, throw them up into the air and catch them 
again and in all these manoeuvres manage to keep them 
displayed and fluttering. 

Hereupon follows the real race. The horses, which are 
distributed by lot, are ridden bare-backed and each jockey 

manipulates his nerbo, a stout whipcord, but 
The Race. he uses it not to strike his own steed but 

rains blows upon his adversary to hinder 
his progress. Three times do they gallop wildly round the 
piazza, the populace accompanying them with deafening 
shouts of encouragement or imprecation. When all is over, 
and victory has fallen to a contrada, there ensues a scene 
that is indescribable, and incomprehensible also to a cold 
Northerner. The whole crowd swarms out of the enclosure and 
mixes among the horses and jockeys, protesting or acclaiming, 
some kissing the victorious horse and rider, others desiring 
to tear both limb from limb. Indeed, if twenty or more 
carahinieri did not quickly force their way through this 
crowd and carry off horse and rider, savage scenes might 
result, for the people can never be persuaded that the race 
has been fairly run and won. Not unfrequently the jockey 
has to be kept away for some days until the excitement has 
cooled. But he reappears in time for the traditional banquet 
given by the victorious contrada a week after the race. 
This banquet is held in the street, and usually the victorious 
horse itself is present decked in all his bravery, eating at the 



Italy at Play 271 

foot of the table out of a manger filled with equine dainties. 
In connection with the Palio it is not without interest to 
know that our English word jockey is derived thence, from 
giacchetto, the name of the small coat these riders wear. 

It is natural that the popular festival of Venice should 
take place upon the waters. This Feast of the Saviour, like 
most of the popular feste of Italy, occurs 
FestiJ-ll of V^nke. ^" *^^ summer when the nights are short 
* and fine weather certain. The third Sunday 
in July is its immemorial date and special excursion trains 
are run on this occasion from all parts of Italy. The night 
that precedes the festa all Venice is abroad, the Grand Canal 
is crowded with gondolas, with large and small boats in which 
merry companies eat, drink and sing under a species of canopy 
of canvas or of intertwined branches from which hang graceful 
and varicoloured lamps of paper or glass. The main crowd 
is found, however, on the island of the Giudecca, which is 
reached on this occasion only by a bridge of boats crossing 
the great canal from the Zattere. Here fish suppers are 
de rigueur, and while discussing the " fruits of the sea," as the 
Venetians picturesquely call the inmates of the ocean, the time 
is gaily passed until the moment of dawn. The magnificent 
spectacle of a summer sunrise from out the waters is then 
eagerly watched, after which it is customary either to go 
to the Lido and take a plunge into the Adriatic or to bathe 
in the lagoons. A light breakfast of a cup of black coffee, 
partaken of by the richer in the lovely Square of St. Mark's, 
precedes the clou of the festa, consisting in the gaily-clad pro- 
cession, followed by an immense crowd, that Sets out from 
St. Mark's and proceeds across the bridge of boats to the 
Church of the Redeemer. 

The farther south we go the more feste we meet and the 
more is their originally pagan character accentuated. Truly, 
they are often Bacchanalian rather than Christian. Such, 
for example, is the Feast of St. Alfio at Catania, where 
the men run stark naked for several hours to reach a 



272 Italy of the Italians 

certain shrine on the foothills of Etna, and whence they are 

brought back at evening by the women in gaily-decked carts, 

beating tambourines and singing wild songs. 

St^^Am °*t Marriage contracts among the people in 

Catania. Sicily often contain a clause that a man should 

allow his wife to go at least once during 

their wedded life to this festa, and no pains and no expense 

is spared in the decoration of the cart and of the little horse 

that draws it. Whoever has witnessed it will not easily forget 

the weird, noisy, multi-coloured spectacle of this cavalcade 

returning amid clouds of dust, down the long Via Etnea of 

Catania that seems to lead right up to the volcano. 

A rather similar festa is that of Monte Vergine, near Naples, 

annually attended by some 80,000 pilgrims, of whom more 

than half come from the city, where clubs 

The Feast of exist to which subscribers pay a weekly sum 

Monte Vergine. in order to defray the cost of the journey, — 

for Monte Vergine is twenty miles from 

Naples. Arrived at the shrine they mostly make the final 

ascent on their knees and even lick the ground with their 

tongues. On their return both sexes are crowned with flowers 

and carry garlands on long poles. Gay plumes and ribbons 

also decorate the horses, while the carriages are covered with 

pictures of the Madonna. At a certain point half-way all 

descend, dance the Tarantella — a love story in action in 

which the two dancers represent an enamoured swain and his 

lady love — or sing the popular songs of the hour. This festival 

falls on Whit- Sunday. 

Naples and its environs are truly the district of feste 

par excellence. The city's greatest ecclesiastical function, 

however, is that which occurs three times a 

^FunXin*" y^^^' ^^ *^^ ^"^^^ Saturday in May, September 

19th, and December 16th, when the blood of 

St. Januarius, the local patron, is said to liquefy. On the 

rapidity or otherwise with which this miraculous liquefaction 

occurs the welfare of the city is thought to depend. The 



Italy at Play 273 

priest shows a bottle containing a solid red mass and only 
after a wait of more or less duration, during which prayers 
are offered and curses, too, are often muttered at the delay, 
does he announce " It moves ! " whereupon the news passes 
through the city like wildfire. Formerly cannons were fired 
and the civil authorities attended. Now it is purely a church 
festival, and another excuse to the people to close their shops 
and make holiday. 

Panem et Circeuses, that old Italian instinct, is not dead, 
and its manifestations are multiform. A book could be filled 
enumerating and describing the various shapes it assumes. 
I must content myself with naming but a few examples. 

Thus, St. John's Day, the summer solstice of the pagans, 
is celebrated through the length and breadth of Italy with 

more or less rejoicing, and is always accom- 
St. John's Day. panied by some form of illumination, in many 

cases that of bonfires lighted at midnight 
upon the crests of the hills. At Florence, the "Sheepfold of 
St. John," as Dante calls the city, the public buildings are 
illuminated in the fairy-like manner that is a local speciality. 
It is, however, the Easter feste that the traveller is more 
likely to attend and of these Florence boasts a ceremony 

that is unique called the " Scoppio del Carro " 

Fe"tivafS ^^^® bursting of the car). On Holy Saturday, 

Florence. ^^ the moment when the Mass has reached 

the Gloria in Excelsis, an artificial dove, 
bearing a taper lighted by the Archbishop, shoots along a pre- 
viously-prepared wire down the whole length of the Cathedral, 
and sets alight the petards and other fireworks that adorn 
the traditional car which has been brought hither early in 
the day drawn by three pairs of splendid milk-white oxen. 
The cost of this quaint performance is defrayed by the Pazzi 
family, for it is held to commemorate the doughty deed of an 
ancestor who brought the sacred fire direct from the Holy 
Sepulchre, ridiijg backward all the way from Palestine in 
order that the wind might not extinguish the flame. 



274 Italy of the Italians 

Another quaint Florentine festival falls on Ascension Day, 

and is known as the Festa del Grillo (Cricket). According to 

immemorial custom, everyone goes out early 

Festa del Grillo. to the Cascine, the local park, breakfasts 

there upon the grass, and buys and brings 

home a cricket. All manner of good luck attends the keeping 

alive of these little insects for forty days. The custom has an 

Etruscan origin, and is connected with the immortality of the 

soul. The quaint, pretty little cages in which the luckless 

insects are imprisoned are exact replicas of those in which 

little doves are caged in the famous Pompeian fresco. 

Thus, once again, the ancient and the modern grasp hands 
in Italy. 

A pretty spectacle can be seen in Florence and the neigh- 
bourhood on the eve of the Virgin's birthday, September 8th. 
In the popular quarters the windows are 
^B^ th'd^'"'* decorated with paper balloons containing 
lights, and lights of the same kind mounted 
on long sticks are carried by the children up and down the 
streets. These are called rificolone. The custom dates from 
mediaeval times when the population of the neighbouring 
burghs came in crowds to Florence to visit the sanctuary 
and fair of the Annunciation. It was then that the women 
were nicknamed figracolone, because when visiting this fair 
they used to carry candles wrapped in coloured papers 
during the night hours while waiting patiently under the 
loggia for the church doors to open. 

Such lights wrapped in coloured papers are often a pretty 
feature hung below some country cart returning home late 
at evening. 

Epiphany is another general holiday on which all children 
expect presents. Din and noise is its leading feature, which 
in Rome, in Piazza Navona, attains to deaf- 
Epiphany, ening proportions. On this day all over 
Italy boys blow tin or glass trumpets. The 
latter are of exquisite proportions and resemble the long 




A GAME OF PALLONE 



Italy at Play 275 

trumpets so often blown by Fra Angelico's angels. It is said 
that they are sounded to announce the Flight into Egypt. 
Italy has no national game like cricket or football, nor are 
her people great athletes (the climate renders this impossible), 
but she has two pastimes from which tennis 
Two Pastimes, and football respectively derive their origin. 
The one is Pallone ; the other the Giuoco del 
Calcio which does not differ so greatly from its Anglo-Saxon 
descendant, except that when played now, on festive occa- 
sions, it is played in fourteenth-century costume, and with 
picturesque ceremonial. 

Pallone can be constantly seen. Few spectators of the 

modern game of lawn-tennis know whence we derive our 

chalked lines, the central net, the graceful 

Origin of prestures, the rapid strokes. A moment's 

thought would suffice to convince us that 

lawn-tennis boasts no Northern origin. Not by brute strength 

but by rapid calculation and agility of limb are the points 

gained. 

The rules of this " big ball " are simple. It is played upon 
an oblong court one hundred by twenty-five metres in extent. 
This is divided crosswise in the centre by a 
^^P n"'^* °^ ^^^^' ^^^ players are nine — ^four on each 
side, and one pitcher. The implements are 
an inflated leather ball, ten to twelve centimetres in diameter, 
and a bracciale. This last consists of a cylindrical wooden 
glove, weighing six pounds, made all in one piece, cut to fit 
the hand inside, studded outside with hard-wood teeth 
and bound with steel bands. The players arrange themselves 
near the two extremes of the court, four on each side, and the 
pitcher takes his place in a square cage in the centre of one 
end of the court. One set of players is called the azzurri 
(blues), the other rossi (reds). The game is begun by the 
hattitore (pitcher) serving the ball to each of the receivers on 
the opposite side in turn. The ball must go over the cord 
extended in the middle of the court, like the central net of the 



276 Italy of the Italians 

tennis-ground, touch the ground once on each side, and be 
returned to the player on the extreme left of the other side. 
The ball is received and returned with the wooden glove, 
re-returned, and so forth. Each time that either side receives 
and returns the ball, making it comply with the requirements 
— that is, pass above the central cord and not go out of the 
limits of the court — fifteen points are gained. The maximum 
number of points is forty-five, but it is called forty. That 
is to say, the third and last round adds but ten and out to 
the preceding thirty points. Then the players reverse sides, 
and the pitcher of the winning side serves the ball. 

This game dates from the sixteenth century, and in many 
of the provincial Italian towns the hracciali count their years 
of active service by the hundreds. They are handed down 
from generation to generation, usually belonging to the noble 
family of the place, and loaned to each succeeding player as 
he makes his reputation on the field. 

The costumes worn are traditional, consisting of a white 
frilled jacket, white frilled short hose, white stockings and 
white canvas shoes, and red and blue sashes to distinguish 
the teams. 

As will be seen from this too cursory survey there is choice 
enough and to spare of means of amusement in the Peninsula. 



EPILOGUE 

Such all too much in outline the picture I have attempted 
to draw of the Italy of to-day, which I have called the Italy 
of the Italians to distinguish it from that Italy which is too 
often the only one the traveller knows. Italy does not merely 
" mourn with memories." If I have shown that this newest 
Italy is also well worthy of study, of intelligent sympathy, my 
highest aims are fulfilled. Truly, the Italy of the Italians is 
a land pulsating with hope and promise — a land that in a brief 
fifty years by its own ability and energy, from a congeries of 
little States, ill-ruled and exploited by Churchmen, Bourbons, 
Hapsburgs, Napoleonic upstarts, has raised itself by its own 
unaided efforts to the rank of a first-class power. Modern 
Europe has no parallel to this. Do not let us dwell too 
heavily, as the stranger is often inclined, upon Italian short- 
comings. Italy is a young nation, and will work through her 
difficulties as other nations have done. With her long sea- 
board, her fertile soil, her keenly intelligent population, 
she has beyond all doubt a rich future before her ; the third 
Italy, in her more modern manner, will yet be a worthy 
successor of the two great Italies of the past. That Italy is 
a good land to live in, free in her institutions, in some respects 
the freest on the Continent, and the rnost hospitable to the 
stranger, is proved by the large number of Outlanders who 
settle within her borders, and who after dwelling there 
some years would not live elsewhere. For Italians are a good 
people to live amongst ; they have so many sterling qualities 
that with tact and goodwill it is never necessary to discover 
their faults. And what nation is lacking in these ? 

Gratefully, therefore, I send out this little book, which has 
been to me a very labour of love. May it serve as a token 
of the deep thankfulness I feel to the people, and to the land 



278 Italy of the Italians 

that for now some twenty years has been to me a second 
and dearly loved home. Those who may carry it with them 
in their knapsacks when they visit this " land of lands " I can 
but urge to keep eyes and ears open also for the Italy that 
throbs around them, that feels and acts and thinks and works 
and meditates to-day in this twentieth century, and believe 
me that glorious and lovely and eloquent as is the message of 
the past and decaying Italy — no one can love it better than 
I — that which the new can offer is in many ways no less 
glorious ; and, moreover, to it belongs the future, for it has 
youth and hope and time upon its side. And herewith Vale. 



INDEX 



Abruzzi, Duke of the, ascends 
Mount Elias in Alaska, 168 ; 
his Polar Expedition, 168, 169 

Absenteeism of landlords, evils 
arising from, 198 

Actors : excellence of their work, 
150 ; reformation brought 
about by Bellotti-Bon, 150, 
151; the fundamental principle 
of Italian acting, 151, 152 ; 
avoidance of declamation, 152 ; 
Italians are actors by nature, 
152; enthusiasm excited by 
Novelli, 153 ; Zacconi's real- 
ism, 153 ; G. Salvini, Fuma- 
galli, and Scarneo, 154 ; Cala- 
bresi and others, 154, 155 ; 
Eleonora Duse, 143, 151, 155, 
156 ; various actresses, 156 ; 
dialect companies, 157. (See 
also Theatres) 

Aerography, researches into, 166 

Agenzia Stefani, the Renter of 
Italy, 35 

Agriculture, number of persons 
engaged in, 197 ; drawbacks to 
its successful pursuit, 198, 199 ; 
co-operation and social organi- 
sation in, 200, 201; instruction 
in, 201, 202 ; in relation to 
land tenure, 203, 207 ; its 
progress hindered by the owners 
of Latifondi, and by small 
proprietors, 203, 204 ; Metayer 
system of, 204, 205, 206 ; mixed 
system of, 205 ; schools of, 
207 ; new system for its 
management, 208 ; Govern- 
ment assistance in, 209, 210 ; 
help given by museums for its 
development, 209 ; economic 
conditions of, 210 ; the King's 
interest in, 212 ; Institute of, 
212 ; produce from, 219 



Agriculture, High Schools of, 202, 
207 

Institute of, 212 

Alabaster, workers in, 222 ; where 

found, 223 ; two kinds of, 223 
Alfani, Padre, student of earth- 
quakes, 167 

Vincenzo, sculpture of, 132 

Amicis, Edmondo de, his mili- 
tary tales, and stories of travel. 

70 ; propagandist of Socialism, 

71 ; his " L'Idioma Gentile," 
71 

Amusements, 258, sqq. 
Anthropology, criminal, the lead- 
ing place taken by Italy in this 
study, 175 ; Professor Lom- 
broso's theories on the subject, 
176, 177, 185 ; the fundamental 
basis of the science, 177 ; views 
of Signor Sergi, 177 ; methods 
of study, 178 ; psychic pecu- 
harities, 179; habits of crimi- 
nals, 180 ; mental derangement 
allied with crime, 181 ; two 
great classes of criminals, 181 ; 
preventive measures, 182 ; the 
question of punishment, 183 ; 
the Geneva Congress on the 
subject, 183 ; the work of 
Enrico Ferri, 190, 191 ; views of 
Colajanni, 192 ; the studies of 
Garofolo, Sighele, Ferrero, and 
others, 193-196 

Antiques, false, manufacture of, 
224 

Antiquity and Fine Arts, Depart- 
ment of, 238 

Aosta, Duchess of, Grosso's pic- 
ture of, 96 

Apennines, the, destruction of 
trees on, 198 ; the question of 
the re-afiorestation of, 201 

Archaeology, School of, 238 



279 



280 



Index 



Architecture, lack of originality 
in, 139 ; work of Bettrami, 
Boito, D'Andrade, and Sacconi. 
139, 140 
Army, the, cost of, 6 
Arsenals, Government, 231 
Art : absurdity of the statement 
that there is no modern Italian 
art, 77 ; former lack of realism, 
78 ; the provincial element, 78 ; 
work of Domenico Morelh, 79- 
85 ; life and work of Francesco 
Paolo Michetti, 85-90 ; vivid 
colouring of NeapoUtan paint- 
ers, 90 ; pictures of Dalbono, 
90, 91 ; minor painters of the 
NeapoUtan School, 91, 92 ; 
Sicilian and Roman painters, 
92 ; works of Costa, VitaHni, 
Coleman, Jacovacci, and Mac- 
cari, 93 ; pictures of Mancini, 
and Sartorio, 94 ; character- 
istics of the art of Piedmont, 
95 ; landscapes of Calderini, 95 ; 
Grosso's style, 96 ; art in 
Lombardy and the work of 
Segantini, 96-99 ; landscapes of 
Garcano, 99 ; originality of 
Previati as seen in his " Ma- 
donna of the Lilies," 100; works 
of Grubicy de Dragon and 
Mentessi, 101 ; landscapes of 
Fontanesi, 101, 102 ; character- 
istics of the Tuscan School, 102, 

106 ; the Macchiaioh, 103, 104 ; 
Telemaco Signorini, and his 
works, 102-105 ; Ussi and 
Fattori, 105, 106; GioU and 
others, 106 ; landscapes of the 
younger Tuscan artists, 107 ; 
subjects and style of Kienerk, 

107 ; decorative artists and 
portrait painters, 108 ; Meacci's 
work, 108 ; symbolism of No- 
mellini, 109 ; Venetian School, 
109-111; Ettore Tito and 
Casare Laurenti, 110; Luigi 
Nono's " Refugium Peccato- 
rum," 111; " Marius Pictor," 



111 ; Italian artists in Paris, 
111; salient features of ItaUan 
art, 112; portrait painting, 
112, 113; counterfeits of Old 
Masters, 113, 114; cheap pro- 
ductions in, 223 

Arte della Ceramica, the, 228 

Associated Press, 33, 34 

Astronomy, discoveries in, 166 

Athletics, 261 

Avanti, the. Socialist newspaper, 
29, 30 

Baglioni, Calidio, inventor of 
an instrument to prevent rail- 
way collisions, 172 

Balestrieri, Lionello, pictures of, 
112 

Ballot, second, at elections, 20 

Balls, masked, 262 

Banking system, 8 

Banks, Land, for relieving farm- 
ers, 210 

Barbarani, poems of, 75 

Barberini, the, palace of, 237 

Barcelli, Professor, 237 

Barga, Tuscan hamlet, 57 

Barnabei, Felice, and the Museum 
in the Baths of Diocletian, 
241 

Barzini, L., war correspondent, 30 

Bastianini, sculptor, 114 

Bazzi, Bartolommeo, style of his 
art. 111 

Bell of the Basilica Aemilia, 240 

Bellotti-Bon, re-creates ItaUan 
acting, 150, 151 ; fights against 
the Austrians, 151 ; patriotism 
on the stage, 151 

Beltrami, Luca, architect, 139 

Bergler, de Maria, SiciUan artist, 
92 

BerteUi, tremometre invented by, 
167 

Bianchi, A. G., his studies in 
criminal anthropology, 194, 195 

Bicycles, manufacture of, 232 

Biography, dearth of high-class 
books on, 73 



Index 



281 



Biondi, Ernesto, sculpture of, 
127, 128 

Birds, protection of, 209 

Bistolfi, Leonardo, his sculpture, 
116-121 ; style, 116; birth- 
place and early life, 117; his 
specimen at the Turin Exhibi- 
tion, 117, 118; his great work 
"The Sphinx," 119-121; his 
letter on " The Sphinx," 119, 
120 ; his monuments to Grandis 
and Segantini, 121 

Black Stone, the, speculations re- 
garding, 239, 240 

Boat, submarine, Pino's, 164 

Bo'ito, Arrigo, playwright, 162, 
246 ; his operas, 247 

Boito, Camillo, architect, 139 

Boldini, portrait-painter, 112 

Boni, Giacomo, archaeological dis- 
coveries of, 239 

Bookbinding, industry of, 233 

Bassi, Enrico, composer of church 
music, 244 

Bourget, Paul, his praise of 
Matilde Serao's " II Paese di 
Cucagna," 68 

Bracco, Roberto, plays of, 160 

Brancaccio, Neapolitan water- 
colourist, 92 

Bresci, murderer of King Hum- 
bert. 1 

Bribery at elections, 19 

Bruni, Professor Edmondo, and 
the utilisation of telegraph 
wires for telephoning, 171 

Buono, Neapolitan artist, 92 

Burne- Jones, his influence on 
Aristide Sartorio, 94 

Butti, E. A., leader of idealistic 
writers, 72 ; plot of " L'Au- 
tome," 72 ; his " Utopia," 160 

CafS chantants, 258 

Cafes, life in, 259. 260 

Cagin, Captain, member of an 

expedition to the North Pole, 168 
Galabresi, Oreste. character-actor, 

154 



Calandra, his early life, 122 
sketch of projected statue to 
Garibaldi. 122. 123 ; his monu- 
ment to the late Duke of Aosta , 
123. 124 

Calderini, Marco, Piedmontese 
painter, 95 

Calvini, Signora Maria, journalist, 
84 

Campriani, Alceste. 91 

Cauonica, Pietro, distinguishing 
feature of his sculpture. 124 ; 
birthplace and early life, 124 ; 
his busts, etc.. 125 

Cantagalli, Signor Ulisse. pottery 
of, 227 

Cappoccio, the, of a peasant 
family, 206, 207 

Caprile, Vincenzo. 91 

Carducci. Giosue, initiates the 
revolution in literature, 39 ; 
early life, 39 ; his study of the 
classics, 40 ; caUed the " Poet 
of History," 40 ; his " Hymn 
to Satan," 41 ; his use of a new 
metre in the " Odi Barbari," 
42, 43 ; converted to monar- 
chical ideas, 43 ; his " Rime 
e Ritmi, " 44 ; his place 
among modern authors, 44 
portrait of him by Corcos, 112 

CamiSlo, sculpture of, 136, 137 

Carnivals, 262 

Cartography, attention to, 232 

Catania, Feast of St. Alfio at, 
271, 272 

" Cavalleria Rusticana," Verga's, 
64 ; Mascagni'a musical setting 
of, 248 

Cavour. Count, 2 ; as a practica 
farmer, 202 

CervaUetta, estate of, 210 

Chestnut-growing, 218 

Chianti, wine of, 202 

Children, books for, 74 

Chini, Gahleo, art of, 108 

Church, the, music of, 243, 244 ; 
feste of, 264. 271 sqq. ; pro- 
cessions of, 264, 265 



282 



Index 



Clericals, the, their opposition to 

the State and the Sovereign, 

24, 25 
Cloaca Massima, the, date of. 240 
Club, Italian Touring, 232 
Clubs, " Recreation," 262, 263 
Cognaw;, making of, 216, 217 
Colajanni, Napoleone, Socialist 

and criminai anthropologist, 

24, 192 
Coleman. Enrico, Roman painter, 

93 
Coliseum, the,^ preservation of, 237 
CoUodi, C, his " Pinocchio," 74 
ColumbuB and the image-seller, 

221 
Colzi, Padre Agostino, inventor of 

the Colti Helioscope, 174 
Commerce, expansion of, 220 
Congress, Agricultural, 212 
Concerts, 257 
Coral, trade in, 230 
Ctircoe, Tuscan jwrtrait-painter, 

108, 112 
Corradini. Enrico, playwright, 162 
Corriere della Sera, the, independ- 
ent Milanese journal, 30 
Costa, Giovanni, his pictorial 

affinities to Lord Leighton, 93 ; 

influence as a landscape painter, 

93 
Costetti, Tuscan portrait-painter, 

108 
Cotton, large output of, 220 
Counterfeits of Old Masters, 113, 

114 
Cr»duUty, 267, 272, 273 
Crime, prevention of, 182. {See 

alio Anthropology, Criminal) 
Criminals, psychology of, {See 

Anthropology, Criminal) 
Crispi, Francesco, and his Govern- 
ment, 10, IS 
Criiica Sociale, the, 24 
Criticism, musical, 257 
Cucca^ne, the, 267 

Dalbako, Edoardo, liis picture 
of the excommuoication of 



Manfred, 90 ; his " Island of 
the Sirens," 91 ; strength of 
touch in depicting the sea of 
Naples and Naples women, 
91 

Dancing, 262, 263 

D'Andrade, Alfredo, architect, 139 

D'Annunzio, Gabriele, 45-53 ; gen- 
eral character of his works, 
45 ; early productions, 45, 46 ; 
place of birth, 46 ; on the 
essence of poetry, 47 ; his 
longer novels, 47, 48 ; patriotic 
poems, 49 ; his " II Fuoco," 
49 ; high quality of his 
" Laudi," 50, 51 ; his plays, 
51-53, 158 ; extent of his 
influence, 53 ; the William 
Morris of Italy, 53 

D'Azeglio, Massimo, 2 

De Karolis, illustrator of D'An- 
nunzio's plays, 108 

Deledda, Grazia, her regional 
tales, 57 

De Mittis, Italian artist, 111 

Depretis, 10 

De Sanctis, Neapolitan artist, 92 

D'Orsi, Achille, sculpture of, 132 

Dragon, Vittore Grubicy de, art 
of, 101 

" Dreams, Book of," the belief in, 
267 

Dress, 260 

Dupr6, sculpture of, 133 

Duse, Eleonora, 143 ; the out- 
come of a system established 
by Bellotti-Bon, 151 ; her 
choice of parts, 151 ; pupil of 
G. Pezzana, 155 ; rise to 
celebrity and her methods, 155, 
156; her imitators, 156 

Earthenware, manufacture of, 
227, 228 

Earthquakes, instruments for de- 
tecting, 167 

Electricity and Magnetism, their 
extensive application in Italy, 
169-171 



Index 



283 



Elena, Queen, humble origin, 

early life, and characteristics, 

17, 18 ; interest in the poor, 18 

Emanuel, tragedian, 154 

Emporium, the, illustrated paper, 

36 
Epiphany, the, feast of, 274 
Esposito, Neapolitan artist, 92 
Excavations, interest in, 237 ; 
Government control of, 238 ; 
locaUties of, 238, 239; results 
of, 239-241 

Fairs, 267, 268 

Farina, Salvatore, called the 
" Itahan Dickens," 58 ; his 
"Mio Figlio," 58 

Fattori, Giovanni, Tuscan painter, 
105, 106 

Favretto, Giacomo, art of, 109 

Fedi, Pio, sculpture of, 133 

Ferravilla, Edoardo, comic actor, 
157 

Ferrero, Gughelmo, his historical 
works, 74 ; his studies in 
criminal anthropology, 194 

Ferri, Enrico, criminal sociologist, 
24, 183, 184 ; his works, 190-192 

Feste, the, 258, 263-265, 269, 271 
sqq. 

Fireworks, enthusiasm for, 266 ; 
in' churches, 266, 273 

Flora, submarine, described by 
Pino, 166 

Florence, art of, 102 sqq. ; sculp- 
tors of, 133-138 ; Niccolini 
Theatrical company of, 1 43 ; 
theatrical performances in, 145 ; 
Lenten fairs in, 268 ; festivals 
at, 273, 274 

Flowers, cultivation of, 197, 219 

Fogazzaro, Antonio, his works, 
61-63 ; his ideahsm, 61 ; treat- 
ment of love and duty, 61 ; 
the plot of his „ Piccolo Mondo 
Antico," 62; ecclesiastical prob- 
lems in "II Santo." 63 ; love 
of Nature set forth in his poems, 
63 



Fontanesi, laiidscape painter, 101, 

102 
Football, origin of, 275 
Forest-laws. 200 
Forestry, School of. 200 
Forests, destruction of, 198, 199 ; 

of Tuscany, and the Maremma.^ 

200 
Fowls, raising of, 219 
Fragiacomo, Pietro, Venetian 

painter. 111 
France : diiference between her 

people and the ItaUans, 3 ; th& 

model of Italian government, 3 
Franchetti, Baron Alberto, operas 

of, 250 
Fregoh, quick-change artist, 259' 
Fruit-growing, 197, 219. (See 

also Vines) 
Frullini. Luigi, wood-carver, 138. 
Fucini, Renato, his verses in the 

Pisan dialect, 75 
Fucino, Lake of, draining of, 202, 
FumagaUi, tragedian, 154 

Galli. Tuscan portrait-painter, 

108, 112 
Gambhng, love of, 259, 266, 267 
Game-laws, 207 

Garcano, Filippo, painter of Lom- 
bard plains, etc., 99 
Gargiuolo, sculpture of, 132 
Garibaldi, D'Annunzio's . poems 
on, 49 ; memorial to him in 
Mdan, 122, 123 
Garofolo, criminology of, 193 
Gazctta di Venezia, Venetian news- 
paper, 31 
Gemito, Vincenzo, early life, 131 ; 

his sculpture, 132 
Genius in relation to madness, 186 
Genoa, port of, importance of, 233- 
Gerente responsabtle, the, office of, 

30 
Ghiglia, Tuscan portrait-painter. 

108 
Giacomo, Scdvatoredi,poem3of,75 
Ginori, the Marchese, pottery 
factory of, 227, 228 



284 



Index 



Giolitti, unscrupulous policy of, 
10, 212 

Giordano, Umberto, musical com- 
pose, 251 

Gtornale di Siciiia, newspaper of 
Palermo, 31 

Ciornale d'ltaiia, the, 29 

Giovannini, actor, 155 

Giuoco del Calcio, the game of, 
275 

Goldoni, founder of the Italian 
drama as it is to-day, 144 

Grammatica, Emma, actress, 156 

Grammatica, Irma, actress, 155, 
156 

Grandi, Giuseppe, sculpture of, 126 

Grandis,Sebastiano,BistoIfi's mon- 
ument to his memory, 121 

Grasso, actor and playwright, 157 

Greene, G. A., his " Italian 
Lyrists of To-day," 60 

Grosso, Giacomo, Piedmontese 
artist, 96 

Guerrini,01indo ("Lorenzo Stecch- 
etti "), works of, 60 

Habits of Italians, 259 sqq. 
Hats, felt, manufacture of, 281 
Helioscope, the Colzi, 174 
Herculaneum, site of, 241 
History, lack of high-class books 
on, 73, 74 ; Ferrero's " Young 
Europe," 74 
Horse-racing, 269, 270 
House of Deputies, number and 
qualification of members, 19 ; 
place of meeting and regula- 
tions, 20, 21 ; style of address 
of members, 21 ; large number 
of lawyers elected, 21 ; in- 
trigues and cabals, 22 ; absence 
of party-government system, 

22 ; the Socialistic element, 22, 

23 ; narrow and questionable 
aim* of members, 23 ; claims 
of voters on Deputies, 25, 26 

Humbert, King, murder of, 1 ; 
his lack of initiative, 2 ; timid- 
ity. U 



Hydroscope, invented by Pino, 

164 
" Hymn to Satan," Carducci's, 41 

Idealism, qualified by a positive 
and realistic strain, 175 

Illustrazions lialiana, of Milan, 
36 

Images, makers and sellers of, 
221. 222 

Industries, 220 sqq. 

Interviewing, newspaper, 35 

Iron, wrought, making of, 229 

Italy : defects of the Government, 
2 ; want of cohesion, 3 ; takes 
France as the model of her 
Government, 3 ; office of 
Prefect, 3 ; adoption of the 
Enghsh Income Tax, 4 ; fiscal 
policy, 4 sqq. ; cost of the 
Army, 6 ; bureaucratic pe- 
dantry, 7 ; octroi system, 7 ; 
railway system, 8 ; flaws in 
the banking and judicial sys- 
tems, 8, 9 ; Parliamentary Ufe, 
9, 10, 19 sqq. 

Jacoacci, Roman painter, 93 

Januarius, St., festival of, 272, 
273 

Jerace, Francesco, sculpture of, 
129-131 

" Jockey," derivation of the word, 
271 

Journalism, inadequately remu- 
nerated, 33). {See also News- 
papers, and Associated Press) 

Justice, administration of, 9 

KiENERK, Giorgio, art of. 107 

La Nuova Parola, organ of Ideal- 
istic school, 36 
Lace, industry in, 229 
Lauciani, archaeologist, 239 
Lara, Contessa, author of " Una 

famigha di Topi," 74 
Latifondi, the, 203 
" Laudi," D'Annunzio's, 50. 51 



Index 



285 



Laurenti, Casare, Venetian 
painter, 110 

Lawn-tennis, origin of, 275 

Layard, Sir Henry, on Venetian 
moeaics, 226 

Leoncavallo, Ruggiero, operas of, 
250, 251 

Levi, Eugenia, " I Nostri Poeti 
Viventi " by, 60 

Liguria, sculptors of, 125 ; cul- 
tivation of flowers in, 219 

Literature, its classicism, 38 ; its 
sentimentalism and banality 
between 1860 and 1870, 38; 
reaction, 38, 39 ; works of 
Carducci, 39-44 ; works of 
D'Annunzio, 45-53 ; minor 
poets, 54 ; Pascoli's poems, 54- 
57 ; weakness of fiction, 57 ; 
Deledda's novels, 57, 58 ; 
works of Farina and Rovetta, 
58 ; style of Francesco de 
Roberto, 59 ; prevalence of 
illicit love as the theme of 
fiction, 59 ; no dominant ten- 
dency shown in poetry, 60 ; 
poems of Guerrini {" Stecch- 
etti "), 60 ; mixture of themes 
in the works of Fogar- 
zaro, 61 ; " Piccolo Mondo 
Antico," 62-63; Verga's Sici- 
lian tales, 64, 65 ; works of 
Matilde Serao, 65-69 ; novels 
of Edmondo de Amicis, 70, 71 ; 
songs of Ada Negri, 71 ; E. A. 
Butti's works, 72, 73 ; works 
of biography and history, 73, 
74 ; books for the young, 74 ; 
dialect poetry, 74, 75 ; point 
of unity in Italian writers, 
75 

Lojacono, Francesco, Sicilian 
artist, 92 

Lombardy, painters of, 96 sqq. ; 
sculptors of, 125 

Lombroso, Professor Cesare, 1 19 ; 
his theories on criminal an- 
thropology, 176 sqq. ; his ca- 
reer and works, 184-187 



Lopez, comedy writer, 161 
Lorenzo, Tina di, actress, 156 
Lotto, Government, 259, 266 
Lubins, David, American phil- 
anthropist, 212 
Lucca, oil of, 217 ; image sellers 

of, 221, 222 
Lugano, headquarters of com- 
panies, 6 
Lunacy, 181, 187, 188 
Lungo, Carlo del, inventor of a 
machine to reduce the wear and 
tear of ships, 172 

Maccari, Roman painter, 93 

Macchiaioli, the, their favourite 
subjects, 103 ; origin of the 
name, 103 and note 

Majolica, industry in, 227, 228 

Malaria, districts producing, 201, 
210 ; decrease of, 211 

Mancini, Antonio, art of, 94 

Mantegazza, Paolo, founder of 
the National Museum of An- 
thropology, 188, 189 

Marconi, Guglielmo, and wireless 
telegraphy, 163, 164 

Margherita, Queen, her influence 
on Victor Emmanuel III. 11 ; 
influence on the government of 
King Humbert, 13 ; carpet 
planned for her by Michetti, 
89, 90 

Mariani, Teresa, actress, 156 

Marionettes, 149 

Marriage, contracts of, 272 

Marzocco, Florentine sporting 
paper, 36 

Mascagni, Pietro, career of, 247, 
248 ; his " Cavalleria Rustic- 
ana " and other works, 248 ; 
his lawsuits, 249 

Mateucci, Professor, and volcanic 
lore, 167 

Meacci, Riccardo, Tuscan painter, 
108 

Medicine and surgery, 169 

Mentessi, Giuseppe, Lombard 
painter, 101 



286 



Index 



Messaggero, the, Roman news- 
paper, skit on system of report- 
ing in, 31 

Metayer system of agriculture, 
204, 205, 206 

Michetti, Francesco Paolo, leading 
features of his art work, 85, 
86 ; birthplace and education, 
86 ; his " Corpus Domini Pro- 
cession at Chieti," 87; his au- 
dacity and wilfulness, 88 ; de- 
scription of his " II Voto," 89 ; 
variety of his pursuits, 89 ; 
plans a carpet for Queen 
Margherita, 89, 90 

Milan, newspapers of, 28, 29, 31, 
36 ; tales of fashionable life in, 
65 ; memorial to Garibaldi in, 
122, 123 ; Sforza Castle at, 139 ; 
Manzoni's theatrical company 
of, 143 ; theatrical season in, 
145 ; dialect of, 157 ; fondness 
of its people for country out- 
ings, 261. {See also Lombardy) 

Milani, Signer, keeper of the 
Etruscan Museum at Florence, 
241 

Modena, Gustavo, his work in the 
modernization of the ItaUan 
theatre, 150 

Montecitorio Palace, place of 
meeting of the Deputies, 20 

Monteverde, Giulio, Ligurian 
sculptor, 125 

Morelli, Domenico, leader of the 
Southern school of art, 79 ; the 
principles which he followed, 
80 ; recalled Art to sacred 
themes, 80 ; his Madonna, 81 ; 
his " Assumption " in the Royal 
Chapel at Naples, 82, 83 ; Christ 
and the Virgin his favourite 
themes, 83 ; his " Da Scala 
d'Oro," 83 ; " Jesus tempted 
of the Devil," 84 ; sensation 
produced by his " Temptation 
of St. Anthony," 84, 85 

Morselli, Enrico, works of, 188 

Mosaics, 225, 226 



Mulberry-growing, 219 

Museums, commercial, 209 ; anti- 
quarian and archaeological, 241, 
242 

Music : of the Church, 243, 244 ; 
oratorios, 244, 245 ; operas, 
245-251 ; instrumental, 251 ; 
singing, 252 ; songs, 252 ; the 
Serenata, 253 ; May songs. 
253, 254 ; dialect songs, 254 ; 
at the festival of the Madonna 
of Piedigrotta, 254 ; singing 
in factories, 255 ; in schools, 
255 ; at theatres, 255 ; in 
villages, 256 ; concerts, 257 ; 
criticism, 257 

Naples, art of, 79, 80, 82, 90 ; 
sculptors of, 129-133; songs 
of, 254 ; festival of St. Janua- 
rius at, 272, 273 

Naples, Prince of. (See Victor 
Emmianuel III) 

Negri, Ada, songs of, 71, 72 

Newspapers, time of pubMcation 
and method of distribution, 27 ; 
eagerly read, 27, 28 ; number, 
28 ; characteristics, 28 ; fea- 
tures of leading journals, 29 ; 
police supervision, 30 ; of&ce of 
the gerente responsabile, 30 ; 
independent and provincial, 30, 

31 ; reporting and criticism, 

32 ; gifts to subscribers, 34 ; 
comic, 35 ; illustrated, 36. 
(See also Journalism, Associated 
Press, and names of newspapers) 

Nietzsche, his influence on D'An- 
nunzio, 48 

Nomellini, PUnio, the most prom- 
ising of the Tuscan artists, 109 

No no, Luigi, his " Refugiura 
Peccatorum," 111 

Novara, battle of, 151 

Novelli, Ermete, his success as an 
actor, 153 

Novels, circulation of, 33 

Nuova Antologia, a fortnightly 
review, 36 



Index 



287 



Observatory at the Vatican, 166 

Octroi system, 7, 8 

" Odi Barbari," Carducci's, 42. 43 

" Odi Navali," D'Annunzio's, 49 

Officina Galileo, the, scientific 
headquarters of the Itahan 
Army and Navy, 173 

Oil, making, 217, 218 ; its exten- 
sive use in Italy, 218 

OUva, Domenico, playwright and 
critic, 162 

Ollivier, Emile, and the second 
ballot, 20 

Opera, composers of, 245-251 

Operettas, 251 

Oratorios, 244, 245 

Origo, Clemente, equestrian sta- 
tues by, 138 

Oscillograph Pagnini, the, 172 

Osservatore Romano, the, 29 

Ostia, Colony at, 210 

PACiNOTxr, Antonio, discoverer 
of the magnetic ring applied 
to the electric dynamo, 170 
Pagnini, inventor of an oscillo- 
graph for railways, 172 
PaUo, the, at Siena, 269, 270 
Pallone, the game of, 275, 276 
Pantaleoni, SociaUst leader, 24 
Paper, manufacture of, 232 
Papier machi, modelling in, 226 
ParUament, the, 9, 10 ; its two 
Chambers and its duration, 19 ; 
Press Gallery, 33, 34 
Pascarella, Cesare, his sonnets on 
the discovery of America, 75, 
163 
Pascoli, Giovanni, Italy's living 
Georgic poet, 54 ; birthplace, 
parentage, and environment, 
55 ; centres his attention on 
the present, in contrast with 
the prevailing tone of Italian 
poetry, 56 ; elected to the 
Chair of Literature at Bologna, 
56 
Pahia, the, 29 
Pedlars, 234 



Pellagra, the, 187, 211 

Pcrosi, Lorenzo, conductor of the 
Sistine Chapel Choir, 244 ; his 
oratorios, 244, 245 

Pezzana, Giacinta, 155 

Philosophy, prominence given by 
Itahans to the study of, 175 

Phylloxera, 208, 209 

" Pictor, Marius," pseudonym of 
a Venetian painter. Ill 

Piedigrotta, the Madonna cf, 
festival of, 254 

Piedmont, the art of, 95, 98 

Pineta forest, 200 

Pino. Giuseppe, marine inventions 
of, 164-166 

Pisa, Alberto, his scenes of London 
life, 112 

Plays, poverty of production until 
recently, 157, 158; transform- 
ation wrought by D'Annunzio, 
158; historical, 158, 159; un- 
popularity of the didactic fea- 
ture, 159 ; of Bracco and Butti, 
160 ; of Praga, Rovetta, Lopez, 
and Traversi, 161 ; of Boito, 
OUva, and Corradini, 162. {See 
also Theatres) 

Poetry. {See Literature) 

Polar Expedition of the Duke of 
Abruzzi, 168, 169 

Police regulations^ 7 

Pompeii, excavations of, 241 

Ponchielli, musical composar, 247 

Post, Electric, 171 

Post Office, facilities of, 34 

Praga, Marco, plays of, 161 

Pragmatism, theory of, 175 

Pratella, Neapolitan artist, 92 

Prefect, office of, 3 

Press agencies, 85 

Press Gallery in the Parliament, 
33. 34 

Previati, Gaetano, influenced by 
the Prc-RaphaeUto School, 100 ; 
his " Madonna of the Lilies," 
and " The Funeral of the 
Virgins," 100, 101 

Printing trade, 232 



288 



Index 



Processions, Church, 264, 265 ; 

torchhght, 265 ; at Venice, 

271 
Puccini, Giacomo, operas of, 249 

QuADRELLi. Lombard sculptor, 
125 

Railway system, 8 

Railways, instrument for pre- 
venting colUsions on, 172 ; the 
oscillograph Pagnini for use on, 
172 ; inefficiency of, 220 

Recreations in the country, 261 

Regia, the oldest building in 
Rome, 240 

Reiter, Virginia, actress, 156 

Resfo del Carlino, newspaper of 
Bologna, 3.1 

Restoration, art, 113 

Ricasoli, Baron Bettino, wine- 
making on the estates of, 202 

Rice-growing, 218 

Ristori, Madame, 143 

Roberto, Francesco de, works of, 
59 

Romagna, the sturdiness and 
hospitality of its inhabitants, 
55 

Rome, newspapers of, 28, 29, 31 ; 
painters of, 92 ; weird land- 
scapes of, 93 ; Sartorio's pastels 
in the Campagna, 94 ; sculptors 
of, 127, 128 ; excavations in, 
239 ; festivals in, 263, 264, 274 

Romulus, supposed tomb of, 239 

Rossetti, D. G., his influence on 
Sartorio, 94 

Rossi, A., war correspondent, 30 

Rossi, Ernesto, 143, 150 

Rovetta, Gerolamo, romances and 
plays of, 58, 161 

Ruggeri, actor, 155 

Russo, Ferdinand, poems of, 75 

Russo-Japanese war, and the 
indebtedness of Japan to Italy 
for military inventions, 173 

SACCOifi, architect, 139 



Saints, 264 

Salinas, Professor, and the Mu- 
seum of Palermo, 241 

Salt tax, 5 

Salvini, Gustavo, 154 

Salvini, Tommaso, 143, 150 ; his 
declamatory style, 152 

Sardinia, the tanche of, 203, 204 ; 
the vendetta of, 204 ; co-opera- 
tive society for the rural 
colonization of, 210 

Sartorio, Aristide, art of, 94, 95 

Scarneo, tragedian, 154 

Scarpetta, Edoardo, comic actor, 
157 

Schiaparelli, Giovanni, his re- 
searches into urography and 
astronomy, 166 

Schools, music in, 255 

Science and inventions, 163-174 ; 
prominent part taken by Ita- 
lians in, 163 ; wireless telegra- 
phy, 163, 164 ; Pino's inven- 
tions, 164-166 ; SchiaparelU's 
researches into aerography and 
astronomy, 166 ; scientists in 
seismology and vulcanism, 167 
travels and discovery, 167-169 
medicine and surgery, 169 
electricity and magnetism, 169- 
171 ; railway inventions, 172; 
military inventions, 173 

" Scoppio del Carro," ceremony at 
Florence of the, 273 

Sculpture, 115-138; in public 
places, 115; Bistolfi's produc- 
tions, 116-122; Calandra's ca- 
reer and work, 122-124 ; char- 
acteristics of Canonica, 124 ; 
works of Monteverde, Quadrelli, 
and Troubetzky, 125 ; statues 
by Grandi and Zolto, 126 
Roman sculptors, 127-129 
sculptors of Naples, 129-132 
Tuscan sculptors, 133-138 
Sea, the, Pino's descents to the 

bottom of, 164-166 
Seaside, the, pleasure resorts at, 
261 



Index 



289 



Secolo, the. Radical journal of 
Milan, 31 

Secolo XX., illustrated paper, 
36 

Segantini, Giovanni, the art of, 
96-99 ; early years. 96 ; his 
ideals, 97 ; his home on the 
Alpine heights, 97 ; most noted 
pictures, 98 ; inclination to- 
wards symbolism, 99 ; death, 
99 ; Bistolfi's monument to his 
memory, 121 

Seismology, the study of, 167 

Selvatico, Lino, Venetian painter, 
113 

Senate, the, qualifications of mem- 
bers. 19 

Serao. Matilde. influence of early 
surroundings upon her realistic 
novels, 65, 66 ; plot of " Fan- 
tasia," 66; treatment of psy- 
chological problems, 67 ; analy- 
sis of the soul in " Cuore Infer- 
no," 67 ; a political novel, 67 ; 
tales of journalism and the 
lottery system, 68 ; mysticism, 
69 ; skill as a journalist, 69 

Serenata, the, in Tuscany, 253 

Sergi, Signor, his views on crimi- 
nal anthropology, 177, 182 

Shakespeare, his plays in Italy, 
148, 149 

Shipbuilding. 231 

Sicily, art of, 92 ; excavations in. 
241 

Siena, frescoes in the Palazzo 
PubbHco, 93 ; the PaUo at, 269 

Sighele, Scipio, criminal anthro- 
pologist, 193, 194 

Signa ware, the, 228 

Signorini. Telemaco, his original- 
ity, 102 ; early years, 103 ; 
influence of the impressionist 
school upon him, 103, 104 ; 
visits Scotland, 104 ; a realist 
by conviction, 105 

Silk, large output of, 220 ; centre 

of the industry in. 230 
Silkworms, rearincof, 219. 229, 230 

ao— (3395) 



Sindici. Aogusto, his verses on 

the legends of the Campagna, 75 
Singers, Italian, 252 
Sistine Chapel, choir of. 244 
Sobriety of the Italians, 259 
Socialists as political organisers. 

23 ; upholders of Constitutional 

rights and reformers of abuses. 

24 ; their study of criminal 

anthropology. 192 
Songs, popular. 252. 253 ; May, 

253 ; dialect. 254 ; in factories, 

255 
Spinelli, Nicola, musical works of, 

251 
Sports and pastimes. 261, 269, 

270, 275, 276 
" Stecchetti, Lorenzo." (See 

Guerrini. Olindo) 
Steel, manufacture of, 231 
Stores, co-operative, 233 
Straw, articles made of, 224 ; 

workers in. 224 ; plaiting. 225 
Sugar, beetroot, trade in, 231 
Sugar tax, 5 
Sulphur, trade in, 231 

Taggi, Signor PisiscelU, inventor 
of the Electric Post. 171 

TaUi, Virigilio, comedian. 155 

Talh-Grammatica-Calabresi dra- 
matic company. 155 

Tanche, the. of Sardinia, 203, 204 

Tapestry, weaving, 226 

Taverns, and their signs, 234 ; 
origin of " Est, Est, Est " on 
signboards of. 234 

Taxation. 4, 5 

Telemeter, the Italian, for military 
operations, 173 

'!femperature of Italy, 197, 199 

Temple of Antonius and Faustina 
240 

Testoni, Alfredo, poems of, 7S 

Theatres, usually filled. 141 ; late 
hour of closing. 141 ; great 
number in Italy, and the fond- 
ness of Italians for them, 141, 
258, 2&) ; interdict by the 



290 



Index 



Roman Church against them, 
141 ; modes of obtaining ad- 
mission, 142 ; the necessary 
capital found by forming com- 
panies, 142 ; companies of 
players, 143 ; second-class, 143 ; 
high quality of acting, 143 ; 
descended from the so-called 
Commedie deU'arte, 144 ; or- 
ganization, 144 ; the theatrical 
year, 145 ; municipal subsidies, 
145 ; character of audiences, 
145, 146; small prices of ad- 
mission, 146 ; composition of 
companies, 147 ; prompter's 
box, 147; popular houses, 148; 
classic plays, 148, 149 ; ma- 
rionettes, 149 ; music in, 255, 
{See also Plays and Actors) 
" Third Italy," the. 39 
Tiepolo, Venetian artist, 109 
Tito, Ettore, Venetian painter, 

110 
Tobacco growing, restrictions on, 

6, 219 
Tombolas, the, 266, 267 
Torlonia, Prince, drains the Lake 

of Fucino, 202 
Tortoiseshell, industry in, 231 
Tosta, Pierantonio, musical com- 
poser, 251 
Tosti, Francesco Paolo, musical 

compositions of, 252 
Tourists, catering for, 235 
Trade-marks, falsification of, 233 
Tramontana, the, 199 
Travels of Italians, 167-169 
Traversi, G. A., comedy writer, 

161 
Trentacoste, Domenico, his salient 
characteristics as a sculptor, 
133, 134; his "Alia Fonte," 
134 ; his " OpheUa," 134, 135 ; 
" The Disinherited," 135 ; called 
" The Poet of Marble," 136 
Tribuna, the, Roman newspaper, 

29 
" Trionfo della Morte." D'Annun- 
cio's, 48 



Troubetzky, Paul, sculpture of, 

125, 126 
Trousseaux, preparation of, 263 
Turati, Socialist leader, 24 
Turchi, Signer Carlo, and the use 
of the same wires for telegraph- 
ing and telephoning, 171 
Turin, Exhibitions of 1880 and 

1884 at, 117, 139 
Tuscany, modem art of, 102 sqq. ; 
sculptors of, 133 sqq. ; forests of, 
200 ; agriculture in, 205, 206 ; 
cultivation of flowers in, 219 ; 
straw of, 224 ; the Serenata in, 
253 

Ussi, Stefano, Tuscan, painter 
105, 106 

Vehicles, 260, 261 

Vendetta, the, in Sardinia, 204 

Venice, Art Exhibitions at, 77, 
78 ; art and artists of, 109-111 ; 
sculpture of, 126, 127 ; mosaics 
of, 226; Feast of the Saviour 
at, 271 

Venturi, Silvio, 195 

Verdi, Giuseppe, development 
of his genius as a composer, 
245 ; his popularity, 246 ; his 
" Aida," 246, 247 

Verga, Giovanni, realism of, 63. 
64 ; tales of Sicilian life, 64 ; 
his " Cavalleria Rusticana," 
64 ; plan for a series of ro- 
mances, 64 ; Milanese tales, 
65 

Vergine, Monte, Feast of, 272 

Vestals, House of, 240 

Vetri, Paolo, Sicilian artist, 92 

Victor Emmanuel II, 2 ; national 
monument to him, 128 

Victor Emmanuel III, Queen 
Victoria's estimate of his promis- 
ing abilities, 1 ; early Ufe, 11 ; 
his studies and travels, 12 ; 
compared with the German 
Emperor, 12, 13 ; inactivity as 
Crown Prince, 13 ; put under 



Index 



291 



arrest for abusing Crispi, 14 ; 
characteristics, 15 ; care for 
his people, 15, 16 ; keen sense 
of duty, 16 ; domestic life, 17 ; 
marriage, 18 ; his charity, 18 ; 
interest in agrarian affairs, 
212 

Victoria, Queen, her high opinion 
of the Prince of Naples, 1 ; 
employs the Tuscan artist, 
Meacci, 108 

Villages, music in, 256 

Villeggiatura, the, 261 

Vines, their defence against di- 
sease, 208 ; enemies of, 213 ; 
care of, 214 

Virgin, the, birthday of, 274 

Vitalini, Roman painter, 93 

Vulcanism, the study of, 167 

Wages, agricultural, 210, 211 
Waters, mineral and thermal, 
234 



William II, German Emperor, 
compared vrith Victor Em- 
manuel III, 12, 13 
Wine, in the Chianti district, 202, 
214 ; schools for teaching the 
making of, 207 ; quantity pro- 
duced, 213 ; methods of mak- 
ing, 214, 215 ; its fermentation, 
215 ; various qualities of, 216- 
Wireless telegraphy, 163, 164 
Women, rights of, 34 ; disabili- 
ties, 34 
Wood-carving, 138 
Wool, manufacture of, 231 

Ximenes.Ettore, sculpture of, 127 

Zacconi, Ermete, realism of his 
acting in Ibsen's " Ghosts," 
153 ; pupil of the tragedian 
Emanuel, 154 

Zolto, Antonio del, sculpture of,. 
126, 127 



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